Reflections of a Shattered Glass
by Krin Dreamweaver
Summary: Sequel to On Pale Wings I Fly.
1. dreams and memories

** Standard disclaimer **  
** This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to real people or  
** places is at least mostly coincidental.   
** Many of the characters in this work are the property of AIC,  
** Pioneer, and probably a number of other Japanese people, all of  
** whom are richer than me. Please do not sue this humble   
explorer  
** in the world to which you gave light.  
** /Standard disclaimer **  
** Author Note Thingum **  
** In case anybody who doesn't know sees this, this  
** story is part four in the series begun by Birthday Wishes.  
** Continuity is, as always, OAV. Note that I have never read the  
** manga or the novels, so any characters or events mentioned   
** there which are also mentioned here will not be portrayed the   
** same way.  
** krin --(krin@hotmail.com)  
** /Author Note Thingum **  
  
  
Reflections Of A Shattered Glass  
  
  
-- one --  
dreams and memories  
  
"I da..da..don't know about this Ka..Kagato. I mean,   
wuh..what if she finds out too suh..soon?"  
  
Kagato grinned and patted Yakage confidently on the shoulder.   
Yakage flinched slightly at the touch, an unconscious motion.   
Kagato knew Yakage hated being touched, so made it a point to do   
so as often as possible.  
  
"Don't worry Yakage, she isn't half as smart as she likes to   
think she is. Besides," Kagato paused, fishing inside the vest of   
his green and tan University uniform for a moment before   
withdrawing a small metal vial and holding it tantalizingly before   
Yakage's face, "You Do want this, don't you?"  
  
"Th..tha..tha..." Yakage stuttered, a habit that annoyed   
Kagato no end. "You really got it?" Yakage asked finally, giving   
up on the word 'that.'  
  
"I Said I would, didn't I?"  
  
Yakage started to reach for the vial but Kagato slipped it   
back into his sleeve before his associate's hands were halfway   
there. "Uh uh, Yakage," he taunted, "You know the deal. We do   
her first, Then you get the blood."  
  
Yakage stared at the sleeve into which his prize had   
vanished, unconsciously wetting his lips. Eventually he nodded.   
"Oh..oh..okay. Buh..but I don't like th..this. I want to go on   
th..the rec..record as having sah..said that."  
  
"Record?" Kagato laughed, his spectacles flashing in the   
diffuse light of the University lab as he tilted his head back.   
"The only record we'll have is with the GP if we get caught. And   
if we're captured saying you didn't like it won't do you a bit of   
good Yakage. You're either in this or you're not. But if you're   
not, you'll never, ever get that vial."  
  
Yakage frowned for a moment, then nodded again.   
"All..alright, Kagato. I'm in."  
  
"Why do you persist with that stutter? No one stutters   
anymore. I could fix it myself if you would let me."  
  
"I..ih..it guh..gives me texture. Ehv..everyone here is the   
suh..same, I want to be duh..different."  
  
Kagato sighed and shook his head, the capacity of humanity   
for stupidity was astounding.  
  
"He..here she cuh..comes," Yakage stuttered as the outer door   
of the laboratory slid open, "Luh..look busy."  
  
  
Washuu typed rapidly, if distractedly, across a floating   
keyboard near the middle of the lab. Before her hung a complex   
lattice of data defining the chemical process she outlined with   
her keystrokes. It shifted and evolved through scintillating   
rotations as she added new molecules and altered the ambient   
forces with deft commands, but Washuu's mind was elsewhere.  
  
All the real work was done. Even all the follow-up work that   
Washuu so hated was out of the way. All that was left to do now   
was give the go-ahead and watch the light show. Today would be   
the day that the Project, culmination of a century of research and   
a decade of concentrated effort, came to fruition. Somehow,   
though, Washuu did not feel the elation that usually accompanied   
an experiment nearing its most important phases.  
  
"Kagato," Washuu asked absently, watching as a long-chain   
molecule drifted into the increasingly complex model rotating in   
the air, "Do you have the v-tank prepped yet? If we don't start   
soon we'll lose containment on the Massu."  
  
"It has been prepared for the past half hour, Senior-  
professor Hakubi," Kagato replied in that half-respectful-half-  
mocking tone of his. "Yakage has nearly completed preparations   
for the power coupling as well. Perhaps you have decided when we   
will begin, Senior-professor Hakubi?"  
  
Washuu sighed irritably and let the chemical structure   
dissolve in a mass of degrading bonds. There was no point to it   
anyway, tweaking the regeneration process by another half-percent   
would not out-value any further delays to the Project.  
  
*'The Project,'* Washuu thought in annoyance, *Why do I   
insist on calling it that? Everyone, even Yakage when he thinks   
I'm not listening, refer to.. her.. as my daughter. Am I becoming   
too emotionally attached to the experiment and trying to   
compensate by distancing myself? Subset fifty-four was much more   
stable, but I used the sample created using my own ova instead.   
Am I so desperate for company that I'll grow it in my lab?*  
  
*Yes,* the answer came quickly from the depths of Washuu's   
consciousness, "You are that desperate. And you know it.*  
  
"Alright Kagato," Washuu said, stepping away from the   
sequencing console and rubbing her hands together, trying to   
generate the excitement she knew she should feel. "Let's get   
started."  
  
  
Washuu watched the Massu flowing through their confinement   
tubes, wishing it was not necessary to use them. If it were not   
for that requirement she could have done the entire experiment in   
her own lab, away from University strictures and Fleet interests.   
Away from Kagato and Yakage.  
  
There was, of course, a supply of Massu floating in a large   
tank within the depths of her lab, but the Project called for them   
in the thousands and she simply could not muster that sort of   
volume after her last little endeavor into Massu-based   
engineering. With a reproduction cycle of one birth in forty-five   
years, in a good century, it would have taken far too long to   
replenish her dwindled supply to the point where it could be used   
for the Project. So Washuu was forced to appeal to the University   
board and label the Project a University sanctioned experiment,   
thus incurring all their rules, regulations, and whims. That   
meant bowing not only to the wishes of the board but also to those   
of the Jurain Fleet, the controlling investor in the University's   
continued existence. That meant Kagato and Yakage.  
  
Washuu considered herself the greatest generalist scientist   
in all existence, present or past, and of her small army of   
amassed detractors, none had come close to disproving her claim.   
Being an interpdisciplinarian did have its drawbacks though.   
Primarily the fact that there was often someone who was   
obsessively focused on one field of study and, despite being far   
younger, surpassed Washuu's understanding in that narrow area.   
When the University board saw that Washuu's project involved a   
weapons system they immediately handed it off to the Fleet   
interests committee. The University learned long ago the lesson   
that when it came to weapons, hiding from Fleet was a bad idea.   
  
Fleet saw the potential of Washuu's concept and decided   
letting such a wonderful weapons platform go to waste would be   
awful, so they assigned Yakage to the task. Yakage was widely   
considered the most brilliant mind in weapons design. Ever.   
Since he was old enough to hold a knife he had been designing,   
building, and testing weapons delivery and defense systems. It   
was said that in any armed conflict, no matter who was involved,   
at least seventy percent of the weapons systems involved would   
have been designed by Yakage. That was really saying something   
for a person under two thousand years old.  
  
Washuu thought she could have put up with Yakage, really. He   
was obsessively narrow in focus, caring little about anything but   
his precious weapons, but he was a scientist and a truly brilliant   
mind in his way. Unfortunately, with brilliance comes   
eccentricity, and Yakage certainly had his share. There was the   
stutter, of course, but once you learned to hear around it it was   
not really so bad. But then there were the swords. Yakage had a   
thing for swords. To say that he liked them would be something   
like saying 'Why yes, those Jurains certainly are fond of trees.'   
Yakage's quarters, the very few times Washuu had seen them, nearly   
dripped sharp edges. Every wall was covered in swords, models of   
swords, designs for new swords, and pictures of swords in use.   
There were stories that Yakage actually tested the things on   
himself after making a new sword, slicing his flesh and cutting   
grooves into his body just to observe the efficiency of his   
creation. Washuu shuddered, obsession was one thing but Yakage's   
love of sharp objects was just weird. But aside from insisting   
that the weapons delivery system for the Project be capable of an   
energy sword he kept his compulsions to himself, and Washuu   
thought he would probably be tolerable alone.  
  
But then there was Kagato. If someone were to ask Washuu who   
had, in her tremendous tenure at University, annoyed her the most,   
she would say Clay. Anyone who had been there more than a week   
would say Clay. But if the hypothetical questioner were to   
specify, 'who Besides Under-professor Clay,' she would have to say   
Kagato.   
  
There was just something about Kagato. The little spectacles   
he wore, the way he laughed at his own jokes, the way he could say   
the simplest thing as though it were a revelation from the heavens   
and why were you not on your knees begging him to impart more   
wisdom? Even his extensive collection of ancient, primarily   
useless, musical instruments was sinister somehow. But Kagato was   
also University's star student. Washuu's thousands of   
contributions to the body of scientific knowledge were generally   
just accepted as par for the course, the sort of thing that a   
Senior-professor was Supposed to do. Kagato got a few impressive   
results and pulled in attention from all over. Not that Washuu   
thought he had gotten those results entirely by himself, as he   
claimed. Kagato struck her as the type of person to steal another   
student, or even professor's research and call it his own if it   
looked promising. But he was smart. Smart enough that if he were   
cheating it would be a long time before anyone found out.   
  
So for University interests, and to balance some of the   
stigma of diverting a huge flow of resources to Washuu's   
experiment, she was assigned Kagato to go with Yakage as her lab   
assistants. One of them she thought was plotting behind her back   
every time she turned around, and the other Washuu suspected had   
some sort of perverted fetish-centric interest in the Project. Or   
at least her sword. Then there was the fact that Kagato could   
make Yakage do and say nearly anything with a few careful turns of   
phrase and a precisely measured and applied amount of physical   
contact.  
  
It was because of that control, Washuu suspected, that Yakage   
came to her with his doubts. According to the weapons specialist   
Washuu's choices in developing the Project were unsuitable and   
that they would compromise it as a weapons platform. Washuu   
replied that it was never meant to Be a weapons platform and that   
his sword was there primarily as a means of self-defense. Since   
then Yakage had been sullenly quiet most of the time and she   
thought he was plotting something, though she had no idea what.   
Yakage was obsessive, but even he would not stoop so low as to   
sabotage the Project. Especially since that energy sword of his,   
his masterwork as he called it, was an integral part of the   
design. To sabotage the Project would be to undermine his own   
work, and Washuu did not think Kagato could force Yakage to go   
that far. For Kagato himself, there was no question that he would   
do his best for the Project. If it failed the blame would be   
attached to him and Yakage much more quickly than Washuu. She   
was, afterall, a Senior-professor with more than four times the   
span of years he had lived on staff alone. A disastrous failure   
in one of her experiments would be more likely the result of inept   
help than anything she had done, and Kagato knew it.  
  
And all of this for the sake of a few thousand Massu. But it   
had to be Massu, there was simply no way around it. Washuu had   
tried a million combinations of natural chemicals, synthetic   
constructs, and even a few standing energy patterns, but nothing   
worked. She was able to harness the energy of the mysterious gems   
using machinery, and actually had such a rig powering her ship,   
the Soja, but the extraction and conversion mechanism took up half   
the subspace volume of the University station and that would   
hardly be appropriate for the Project. So instead she used Massu,   
having discovered that with a few simple nerve clusters and   
pathways she could replace all the bulky machinery with the   
elegance of biomechanics. Originally the Project called for   
little more than a vegetable. Just a sort of living sponge that   
would draw power from the gems and output it in a more useful   
form. It was not until Washuu decided to try fusing the Massu   
generation pattern with her own DNA that the Project took on   
detail, becoming female and capable of full emotions and logical   
thought.   
  
Even after the decision to make the Project a humanoid there   
had been a wide variety of possibilities, each variation in the   
Massu propagation pattern labeled with a subset number and filed   
away. Subset fifty-four was the most promising, a male body   
capable of limited emotion and with superhuman reflexes and   
cognitive speed, but somehow it just did not seem right to Washuu.   
Of all the dozens of subsets none of them seemed as purely correct   
as the first one, the one based on her own DNA. There was little   
or no scientific reasoning to the decision. Subset one had   
inherent instabilities introduced by being based on real human   
genetic code, however filtered and altered, and making the Project   
female introduced a wide array of difficulties, but Washuu was   
determined without even fully understanding the reason for her   
stubborn refusals.  
  
Washuu sighed. *I should have taken subset fifty-four. I've   
let my loneliness affect my judgement. Maybe Yakage is right and   
my choices for the Project were unsuitable.*  
  
*But,* the deep, introspective, lonely part of Washuu   
countered, *You're going to have a daughter. To have a child   
again, someone to love and to love you back without being   
intimidated by your age and your record.. isn't that worth all the   
problems in the world?*  
  
  
"Project structuring completed," Kagato announced, watching   
the flow of data across his console.  
  
"Initiating puh..power coupling and buh..building energy   
s..ss..sword formation st..structures," Yakage reported, touching   
appropriate controls on his own display.  
  
Within the floor-to-ceiling transparent fibramic tube   
dominating the center of the chamber a light flared. The body   
floating within, built only over the past few minutes using hordes   
of Massu and according to the design Washuu could not decide if   
she wanted to lament using, stiffened and then relaxed, floating   
limply in the yellow fluid filling the tube. Pipes snaked   
silentlydown from the ceiling and connected to the central tube,   
dissolving the fibramic barrier where they encountered it and   
quickly filling with synthetic embryonic fluid.  
  
Washuu watched nervously as the three gems floated down the   
transparent pipes, guided by projected forcefields toward the   
Project's throat and wrists where the reception mechanisms were.   
When the gems came in contact with its flesh the Project arched   
its back and, had it the ability, Washuu thought it would have   
screamed. Green light flared dangerously from the gems and from   
three small circles newly appeared on the Project's forehead,   
shining beneath its mane of cyan hair rendered green by the fluid   
of the tank.  
  
"Structural instabilities manifesting," Yakage reported   
nervously, his affected stutter disappearing in the moment of   
stress, "Project energy output exceeding experiment parameters   
by... This can't be right, it says the Project is radiating   
energy at fifteen thousand times projected norms."  
  
"It's right," Kagato growled, "I have the same thing, and all   
forty independent sensors are registering exactly the same power   
spike. I Told you this was a bad idea, Senior-professor. We   
should have used subset fifty-four, trying to couple Project   
designs with your own DNA was a failed idea and we should not have   
put this.. this.. Waste product into production!"  
  
"Mind your tongue Kagato," Washuu scolded absently, her   
fingers flying across her console while she issued mental commands   
to the array of backup field generators, "I have this under   
control. The experiment parameters were only a guess based on the   
Soja core, I had no idea how the gems would respond to a   
biomechanical interface mechanism. There, that's done it."  
  
"Power levels duh..dropping," Yakage reported, "Gem energy   
output nuh..normalizing. Project consciousness cuh..coming   
online."  
  
Washuu stepped quickly around her console and toward the   
transparent cylinder.  
  
"Drain the tank," Washuu instructed, "Get her out of there   
before she wakes up."  
  
"Oh," Kagato muttered as he bent to the task, "Now it's a   
she."  
  
  
"Wake up," Washuu whispered gently, touching the Project's   
shoulder, "Time to wake up and see the world."  
  
The Project opened her eyes, big, golden eyes slitted like a   
feline, and slowly focused on Washuu's face.  
  
"Mmmnnn haaa aaa," it moaned.  
  
"Engage the learning routine," Washuu commanded, still   
smiling down at the Project where she lay on an examination table.  
  
A moment later the air chimed, indicating the machines had   
completed their task and another phase of the Project was   
complete.  
  
The Project blinked, still looking up at Washuu, and asked   
quietly, "M..mommy?"  
  
Washuu's heart nearly stopped.  
  
*Normal attachment routine,* Washuu reasoned automatically,   
*Hominid subject responding to first sentient figure recognized by   
creating parental link...*  
  
*Mommy,* the annoying human part of Washuu's mind cheered,   
*Mommy! She called me mommy! I'm a mother again!*  
  
"Hello," Washuu said with a smile, "Good morning.. Ryouko."  
  
"Well. This is all very touching," Kagato said, stepping up   
to the opposite side of the table, arms folded across his chest.   
"But I think it's time we talked, Washuu."  
  
Washuu frowned, looking up from the face of her new daughter   
in annoyance. "What's the meaning of this Kagato? I said not to   
disturb me during this phase."  
  
"Yes, yes," Kagato agreed boredly, "You say a great many   
things. But now I think it's time that you step back from the   
table and shut up."  
  
"What?!" Washuu blustered, "Get out! Get out Kagato! Now!"  
  
"Oh, I'll get out," Kagato agreed with a lazy grin, "But you   
and the Project here are coming with me."  
  
"Ry..Ryouko," Ryouko protested weakly, "My name is Ryouko."  
  
Kagato snorted. "So the waste product has a name? Well,   
we'll take care of that..." Kagato touched a small control on his   
wrist and Ryouko stiffened, her mouth gaping open and her eyes   
wide with pain as her wrists slammed against the surface of the   
table.  
  
"Stop!" Washuu cried, "You're hurting her! Stop!"  
  
"Hurting her?" Kagato asked, sounding genuinely confused as   
he watched Ryouko thrash on the table, "She is an experiment, a   
project, a made thing. She has no rights. If I wish to give her   
pain it is my right as her creator."  
  
"You're not her creator! You're my lab assistant!"  
  
"Well now," Kagato chuckled, touching the control again when   
Ryouko's eyes rolled up her head and she began emitting a   
strangled, choking gurgle, "I don't think anyone ever needs to   
know that. No, I think Senior-professor Hakubi will disappear in   
some sort of accident, the Project will be written off as a   
failure, and little Ryouko and I will be off aboard the Soja, a   
generous gift from the late Senior-professor to her favorite lab   
assistant." Kagato grinned and then turned his head to shout back   
through the doorway, "Yakage! Get in here! And bring the   
restraints!"  
  
  
Washuu struggled against her bonds but the holding field was   
too strong. She could not even open her mouth to hurl insults at   
the two men. And worst of all they brought Ryouko. She stood   
there beside Kagato, her beautiful golden eyes turned a malevolent   
green by whatever method he was using to control her.  
  
"Ryouko," Kagato commanded, "Seal your mother in the stasis   
crystal."  
  
Ryouko stepped forward and touched the control key, watching   
with blank green eyes from an emotionless face as the crystal   
formed around the woman who had, so briefly, been 'mommy.'  
  
"And now, Yakage," Kagato said, turning from the growing   
crystal toward his ally, "For your reward."  
  
Yakage grinned anxiously, holding out his hands to catch the   
little metal cylinder as it tumbled through the air, tossed by   
Kagato.  
  
The ashes dissolved before they touched the ground. The vial   
contained a carefully balanced expand charge, not blood as   
promised, and at the moment of impact with Yakage's hands it   
exploded in a tiny nova, vaporizing the weapons specialist where   
he stood.  
  
"Fool," Kagato sneered, "Anyone with half a brain would have   
requested the Project records and design documents so they could   
expand and improve upon it. All he could have done with blood was   
make a poor copy and the weapons system would have been pointless   
without the gems to power it."  
  
Kagato turned back to the crystal, now almost fully formed,   
and rapped gently at it with his knuckles, laughing at the pained   
expression frozen on Washuu's face.  
  
"Come Ryouko!" Kagato called as he strode away through the   
vastness of Soja, "We have much to do and all the time in the   
universe to do it!"  
  
Washuu watched Ryouko walking away and listened to Kagato's   
madness through the bond she had installed within the being who   
had been her daughter during the learning process.  
  
  
Washuu sat up and wiped her forehead of the thin sheen of   
sweat which covered her body. She looked around the bedroom,   
remembering that she was on Jurai, in the royal palace, and   
forcing that knowledge to supplant the fading memories of her   
dream.   
  
It had been an accurate dream, a near-perfect recreation of   
the events as she knew them to have happened. All Washuu's dreams   
were like that, now. For nearly thirteen thousand years she had   
not had anything people would normally refer to as a dream, her   
mind no longer needed them to help collate the day's activities.   
She only slept out of habit, really, and because everyone she knew   
did it. When she was involved in an experiment she would not   
bother with it, but when she did her dreams were always little   
more than vivid memories.  
  
Washuu hated that particular dream. Of all the memories   
which most often surfaced during sleep that was one of the ones   
she most detested. There were others, like the moment her husband   
was taken from her, or a few times during Kagato's enslavement of   
Ryouko, that she hated more, but that one was one of the worst.  
  
Washuu sighed and crawled out of bed. She knew going back to   
sleep now would do no good, she would only pick up the memories   
where they left off, with Kagato forcing Ryouko to break into her   
lab and steal Ryou-ohki. After that he would force her to stand   
absolutely still while he led one of his repulsive friends around   
the newly redecorated Soja, pointing Ryouko out as a piece of   
modern artwork. Washuu shuddered. She did not want to recall the   
horrible things Kagato had said and done, but despite being awake   
they seemed to come in a flood anyway.  
  
In a way Washuu was grateful for Kagato's egotism. He   
considered himself above physical contact with Ryouko, even to the   
point of forcing her to whip herself when he felt she deserved it   
and wanted a more interesting show than simply giving her pain   
through his control mechanism. Because of that belief he never   
assaulted her with more than words, and apparently never thought   
of her as a subject for sexual conquest. He nearly let a few of   
his awful friends rape her, as much to show her that he was in   
control as anything else, but he pulled all of them off before   
they got further than groping her. Washuu held herself against   
the shaking brought on by those memories. She knew Ryouko had   
forced herself to forget all that, as well as much of the worst of   
her time with Kagato, and it was gone irretrievably now from her   
mind. Having an engineered brain had its bonuses, and Ryouko shed   
those memories in order to be able to be close to Tenchi without   
it dredging up her past. Now Washuu was determined to do the   
same.  
  
Kagato was gone, destroyed irrevocably by the power of the   
wings, and that time was over. Washuu had her daughter back and   
was determined never to lose her again. Memories of her   
enslavement, a time she knew Ryouko tried to pretend was only a   
nightmare from her years in the cave, could do nothing but hold   
them apart.   
  
"Now," Washuu whispered, stepping into a pair of slippers and   
pushing away the nightmares, "I wonder where they keep the snacks   
in this place..."  
  
* * *  
  
Aeka thrashed against her pillows and moaned, "N..no. No, no   
sister... No, not that. Noo..."  
  
Aeka's eyes opened, wide and startled as she stared   
uncomprehendingly up at the ceiling of her bedroom. Her breath   
came in short gasps and her hands were locked in a white-knuckled   
grip on her coverlet, her nightdress soaked nearly through with   
perspiration and clinging to her body like a second skin. As the   
nightmare quickly retreated it seemed very important that Aeka   
remember it, but despite her best attempts she could find no more   
detail in the vanishing mist of dream than that it somehow   
involved her sister. And yet... And yet it did not feel like the   
dream was about Sasami.  
  
Aeka sighed bitterly and rolled over, muttering about the   
strangeness of dreams under her breath. She tossed and turned,   
trying to find a comfortable position, but her nightgown was   
soaked, her hair tangled, and her whole body felt sticky with   
sweat.   
  
  
Aeka padded silently across the carpeted floor of her   
chambers and considered having a snack before going back to sleep.   
By the time she returned from her errand dinner was over and the   
main kitchens of the royal family closed for the night. There was   
always the night kitchen, but she had been so exhausted and her   
mind in such a confused tumult from her experiences that she   
simply went to her room and to sleep.   
  
*No,* Aeka thought as she entered the bathroom, *Tomorrow   
will be a busy day and breakfast is in a few hours anyway. I will   
be wishing for the extra sleep if I go for a snack now.*  
  
There were three conversations Aeka knew she must have, and   
she planned to tackle them all tomorrow, the better to have them   
over and done so she could move on with life. First would be with   
Katsuhito, regarding his failure to inform her of his intentions   
for Tenchi. Then with her father about his past actions and the   
possibility that when they all left Jurai this time she would   
never be returning. And finally with Tsunami, away from her   
sister if possible. Aeka wanted to thank Tsunami for sending her   
to Tokimi's domain the previous day and for the knowledge she had   
imparted to her to make her task easier. But, too, she wanted to   
know why the goddess had never told her that she intended Tenchi   
to be with Ryouko. How much easier life would have been had   
Tsunami only told her that night at the onsen. Aeka was also   
still concerned about the things Tsunami was showing Sasami. That   
Aeka had to live through the beatings was bad enough, but the idea   
that Sasami had experienced them through her memories was   
revolting.  
  
Aeka sighed and peeled her nightdress away from her skin   
before stepping into the shower stall. It was the only one of its   
kind on the planet, Jurains traditionally took baths and the   
modern Jurain household had a standard irradiator to remove dirt   
from one's body. This one Aeka ordered built upon her first   
return to Jurai from Earth. Having once experienced a shower on   
Earth Aeka quickly decided it was absolutely necessary she have   
one available here. Baths and irradiation were all well and good,   
but there was simply something about the feeling of water flowing   
down her body, washing away strife and tension along with sweat   
and dirt. If she closed her eyes she could imagine it was a warm   
spring rain and that she stood beneath the caring branches of Ryu-  
oh, the water filtering down through his leaves before striking   
her skin. Such a cleansing was an important part of the ceremony   
bonding a Jurain to her tree, and to be able to experience it   
again at will was simply wonderful.  
  
  
Aeka hugged a pillow to her chest and curled up beneath the   
fresh sheets on her bed. It was a warm night and she would rather   
do without the blankets than waken a maid or trudge all the way to   
the nearest linen closet herself to replace the sweat-stained   
coverlet now lying on the floor. She could not remember her   
nightmare, but it must have been truly awful.  
  
Aeka closed her eyes and tried to drift back into the sea of   
sleep but found herself instead thinking of Tenchi. She wished   
distantly, and not without embarrassment when she realized her   
thoughts, that it was him in her arms rather than a pillow. Aeka   
sighed and tried to force the longing from her mind. It had been   
nearly a year now since Ryouko gave him her gems and helped him   
unlock his heart and Aeka knew that while Tenchi loved her as a   
member of his family she had no place in his bed.   
  
In recent months Aeka had been so busy with Jurain government   
that she hardly had time to think about anything else and some of   
the pain of losing him as her prospective husband had faded. But   
now that she felt she had lost her throne Aeka found her mind   
wandering to those places once more.  
  
*Perhaps if I had been more bold,* Aeka thought sleepily, *I   
could have gone to him that night Ryouko offered to let me.. go   
first. Maybe then he would have chosen me instead...* Aeka   
yawned and tossed weakly against her pillows. *No, he never would   
have taken me to his bed anyway. He loved neither of us that way   
then, and Tenchi was not the type of man to sleep with any woman   
who was willing.*  
  
Aeka squeezed the pillow tightly in her arms, regrets and   
denials drifting through her mind unbidden while she fell slowly   
back to sleep.  
  
* * *   
  
There is no environment quite like a phosphoric acid fog. It   
takes very particular conditions for a planet to form an   
atmosphere capable of producing such a fog, and of course such   
planets are the places criminals flock to when in need of a place   
to hide out.  
  
*Criminals,* Kiyone thought as she slipped through the dense   
mist, her body protected by a Hohanar field, *Are stupid. These   
guys are probably wearing enviro-suits from some backward little   
dirtball and choking through respirators, thinking it's all worth   
it because there's no way the cops are going to chase them down   
onto the surface of this moon. But the cops get all the neat   
toys.*  
  
"I've got a heat signature up to the left captain Makibi,"   
Kiyone said quietly into her communicator, "It's inside that old   
neutronium processing station."  
  
"Affirmative corporal Makibi," Kiyone's father's voice   
returned across the comm channel, "I'll take the point."  
  
Kiyone watched her father seemingly drift across the surface,   
the Hohanar field illuminating his body in stuttering flashes as   
it annihilated the phosphoric acid mist. She checked her sidearm   
for the thousandth time, a habit instilled in her by her father.   
  
'Kiyone,' he always said, 'No matter where you are or what   
you're doing, always, Always keep your sidearm ready. If some   
punk jumps up at you out of nowhere you don't want to be trying to   
yank your blaster out of your holster, or wondering what you did   
with that spare cartridge, you want to be putting a hole in his   
chest.' So Kiyone checked her sidearm. She lifted it half out of   
the holster, flicking the safety off and then back on with one   
finger while tapping the energy cartridge to make sure it was   
securely in place with another and feeling the thermal-output   
readiness indicator with a third before letting it drop back into   
place. She had been doing it so long now that it seemed second   
nature, when she was not wearing a gun she often found herself   
reaching to make sure the phantom sidearm was clear and charged.  
  
Once her father had disappeared into the dilapidated   
neutronium processing station she followed quickly, watching the   
upper levels for movement in case one of the perps had somehow   
gotten his grubby hands on a thermal cloaking unit.   
  
"Closing on thermal signature," the voice was subdued and   
slightly distorted when it sounded in Kiyone's ear. He had   
switched to subvocalized communications to avoid the criminals   
hearing, as if they could hear anything as quiet as speech in this   
environment.  
  
"Affirmative," Kiyone replied automatically. It did not pay   
to keep quiet with your partner while you were on a two-man bust.   
You stay quiet too long and they start to worry, and when you   
start to worry you get nervous, and when you get nervous you let   
things slip. Kiyone checked her gun again.  
  
"I got visual, looks like he's in an old ecma suit and the   
respirator conked out..."  
  
A blur of motion at the corner of her eye alerted Kiyone just   
in time. She dove to the ground, rolling across the dustless   
floor, you don't get dust in a room exposed to acid fog, and   
rising to a crouch behind a piece of derelict machinery.  
  
"Captain, I've got another.. no, two more hostiles out here.   
One just tried to take a shot at me."  
  
"You okay honey?"  
  
"I'm fine dad, you know better than that."  
  
"Right."  
  
Captain Makibi came out of the hallway blasting. He had a   
sidearm in one hand and a subsonic vacuum-ready slug-tosser in the   
other and left a twin trail of whirling distortions in the   
phosphoric acid mist where his shots left the muzzles as he dove   
across the room in low-g, landing on his shoulder and spinning his   
momentum backward to flip back to his feet.  
  
"You've got cover, Corporal."  
  
"Yes sir," Kiyone agreed enthusiastically, drawing her   
sidearm and dodging around her shield, looking for targets. Both   
of the punks were hiding on the other side of a door across the   
room. Kiyone triggered her gravity boots for a full g and got a   
running start, flicking her Hohanar to full as she dove through   
the doorway, letting the boots go back to null and twisting in a   
complicated arc. A Hohanar could stop a bullet or absorb an   
energy pulse at max, but it would overload after more than three   
or four and being left with nothing between you and a concentrated   
phosphoric acid environment was a bad idea.  
  
The two crooks were gaping at her when she landed, her hair   
whipping around her head in the low gravity, apparently   
defenseless unless you knew to look for the occasional flicker of   
the Hohanar. They brought their guns up, one of them a slug-  
tosser like her father's and the other an old-model energy rifle,   
and she could just imagine them grinning behind their clunky   
respirator masks.  
  
When the punk with the blaster fired Kiyone whipped her foot   
upward, catching the slug-tosser's muzzle with the toe of her   
gravity boot and ripping it out of the perp's startled hands. The   
energy pulse hit the Hohanar field and dispersed, leaving   
glittering arcs of energy momentarily cascading around Kiyone's   
body as she twisted, bringing her other foot off the ground to   
catch the disarmed thug across the respirator before landing   
nimbly back on her toes in the low gravity. It was amazing the   
stuff you could pull off in a quarter g.  
  
Kiyone grabbed the old pulse rifle by the coolant fins and   
twisted it around to the inside, keeping the punk from squeezing   
the trigger with the big, bulky fingers of his ecma suit. Kiyone   
slapped a contact patch on the perp's wrist, yanking the gun out   
of his hands as the energy field formed and bound his wrists   
together.  
  
"You're under arrest," Kiyone broadcast across a short-range   
broad-spectrum pulse, "For robbing the Subsidiary Repository of   
Mindic three, evading arrest, reckless piloting of a spacecraft in   
a heavy traffic area, and two counts of assaulting an officer."  
  
Kiyone flicked her leg backward, catching the second perp in   
the chin and flinging him backward against the wall, the knife in   
his hand clattering slowly to the ground.  
  
"Make that three counts."  
  
"Corporal!" Her father's voice roared across the comm   
channel, "We've got another one, he's got a cloaker!"  
  
"Crap," Kiyone mumbled to herself. She hated it when they   
picked up a toy like a cloaker, it made them think they were gods.  
  
"You boys play nice now," Kiyone said with a grin, tossing   
the standing punk into his friend and dropping a stun grenade   
behind her a she jogged back out into the room where she had left   
her father.  
  
Kiyone watched the line of energy bursts emerge from   
apparently empty air and arrow toward the jinking and dodging form   
of her father.   
  
"Got your back Captain," Kiyone sent subvocally, lettering   
her sidearm lead the front edge of the arcing wave of assault   
across one of the balconies. She squeezed off a shot and grinned   
when the punk flickered back into view, his cloaking field   
disrupted by the energy pulse and his ecma suit ruptured.  
  
Kiyone lowered her boots to null g and leapt up to the   
balcony, touching down lightly and slapping a contact patch over   
the hole in the punk's leg. It would not do to have them dying   
before they were convicted. So it was that when the fourth and   
final ecma-suited figure dodged through a doorway on a balcony   
across the room, throwing himself over the rail and somersaulting   
down to the floor, she did not see him until it was too late.  
  
The blast from the construction laser ripped right through   
Captain Makibi's Hohanar, his chest, and two walls before exiting   
the building and kicking up a big cloud of steam from an ice hill   
a quarter mile away. The noise was enough to make Kiyone look up   
just in time to see the punk toss the laser to the side, its   
coolant tank blown from the one shot after sitting unused too   
long.  
  
"No!" Kiyone screamed, not bothering with a comm channel.   
She leapt over the balcony rail, sidearm blasting away at the   
figure on the ground while her father collapsed, a mist of blood   
drifting and fizzing in the phosphoric fog.  
  
The punk went down with four shots, center torso, all in a   
tight little group just like her father taught her. Kiyone landed   
badly, her ankle twisting the wrong way as her mass caught up with   
her in the slow descent. She stumbled forward, limping awkwardly   
to the perp on the ground and putting two more shots through his   
head before stumbling over to her father.   
  
It was too late, of course. Most of his torso was gone,   
vaporized by the big argon laser, and what was left was charred   
and shriveled. His head had survived, mostly intact, along with   
his legs and one hand, still clutching the old slug-tosser.   
Kiyone knelt at his side, tears already flowing down her cheeks.   
  
Most cops, in a situation like this, would take out the   
portable scalpel on their belt and cut out the implant at the nape   
of their partner's neck. The implants were standard issue and   
stored a local backup of the wearer's most recent memories. The   
rest were kept on file in an archive back at HQ and would all be   
transferred to the cop's new body when it finished growing in a   
tank and he would get an honorable discharge with full benefits   
for the rest of his life. It was standard practice. But not for   
Captain Makibi. Kiyone's father was a Midrin and Midrins did not   
believe in consciousness transference post-mortem. It was a   
bizarre belief by most standards, but there it was. So Kiyone   
knelt there and wept, and eventually she got up and emptied the   
rest of her cartridge into the very dead corpse of the punk who   
had gotten off that one lucky shot with a construction laser that   
should have been dead a decade ago. Then she wiped her eyes, put   
on a pair of glare-shield lenses, popped a fresh cartridge into   
her sidearm, and went back to the room where the two stunned punks   
were lying against the wall, checking her gun as she walked.  
  
  
"Kiyone! Wake up Kiyone!"  
  
Kiyone's eyes flicked open and she reached for her gun, but   
it was not there. Kiyone looked around, taking in the room and   
the person shaking her.  
  
"Mihoshi," Kiyone sighed wearily, "Stop Mihoshi. I'm awake."  
  
"Sorry Kiyone," Mihoshi apologized, stepping back from the   
bunk where Kiyone lay. "You were crying in your sleep and then   
you screamed and I thought I should wake you up 'cause you were   
having a nightmare."  
  
"Good thinking Mihoshi," Kiyone said gently. She had to be   
very carefully supportive for Mihoshi now. Since losing her sight   
the blonde was very sensitive to any sort of criticism.  
  
"What time is-" Kiyone stopped, realizing who she was   
asking. "Sorry Mihoshi, I'll look." Kiyone rose and went to the   
edge of the cell they shared while Mihoshi sat back down silently   
on her bunk.  
  
"Three thirty local," Kiyone sighed. "Go back to sleep   
Mihoshi. I'm okay."  
  
Mihoshi nodded and lay back on her bunk, tugging a blanket   
only partly over one leg before passing back out. Kiyone rolled   
her eyes and went to her partner's side to finish tucking her in.   
He hand paused as she reached for the blanket, her fingers   
hovering scant inches above Mihoshi's thigh, the pale skin almost   
glowing in the gentle light that shone in from the hallway outside   
their cellblock. Kiyone's fingers drifted closer, then clenched   
into a fist which the green-haired police-woman held against her   
chest.  
  
*What was I doing?* Kiyone thought desperately, *I wake up   
from a dream about how Dad.. how Dad died, and the next thing I do   
is try to feel up my partner? My Female partner? God Makibi,   
you're such a pervert...*  
  
Kiyone grabbed the blanket angrily and pulled it up over   
Mihoshi's scantily clad body, consciously avoiding any exposed   
skin and doubly so for any unexposed skin. Kiyone's touch turned   
gentle again as she tucked the blanket in around the slumbering   
woman, wondering at how calm and peaceful Mihoshi looked in her   
sleep.  
  
Kiyone sighed and whispered, "Goodnight Mihoshi." She was   
bent halfway over before Kiyone realized she was about to kiss her   
partner goodnight and stood, ramrod straight, to walk stiffly back   
to her own bunk.  
  
*I have Got to get this under control. It's just not right,   
dammit! I'm a woman, she's a woman, we're not supposed to.. it   
isn't.. it's just Wrong! And she isn't even interested. She   
wanted me to kiss her so I'd be happy, so poor Kiyone wouldn't be   
upset that she couldn't get her rocks off with her cute partner.   
God I'm such a damn pervert!*  
  
Kiyone threw herself down on her bunk and exhaled heavily,   
something somewhere between a sob and a grunt, as she turned to   
the wall, pulling her blanket up over her shoulders halfheartedly.  
  
"Damn it Dad, why did you have to leave me?" Kiyone   
whispered, tears beginning to form in her eyes, "I never cried   
before.. before you went away, and now it's like that's all I do.   
If you were here you'd tell me how to stop thinking about Mihoshi   
like this. You'd get pissed off, but you'd know what to do. You   
always knew what to do. But you're gone and now I'm stuck in a   
damned holding cell like some kid that vandalized a store!"  
  
Kiyone rolled onto her back and thrashed about a bit in   
frustration, trying to find a comfortable position on the little   
bunk before giving up, one knee bent and leaned against the wall   
and the other leg tossed over the side of the bed, her arms   
crossed over her face. Kiyone stared into the darkness behind her   
eyelids and tried to go back to sleep, tried to stop thinking   
about the sweet young woman lying nearly naked just across the   
room who had had her hands on her just a few moments ago.  
  
* * *  
  
"Security band transmission incoming sir."  
  
"Alright," Captain Takima said, sitting up in his command   
chair and straightening his uniform, "Put it up."  
  
Takima stifled a groan when the face of the person on the   
other end of the transmission appeared floating before him. It   
was one of those University people, and if a University ship was   
calling on a secure-band channel it could only be one of two   
things. Either they had wandered into hostile space and now   
needed someone to come hold their hands while they got back out of   
it, or they had an Artifact sighting.  
  
"Mister.." the man in the green and white University jacket   
glanced down at a screen below the comm on his end before   
continuing in a voice that made it obvious he was reading a   
script, "Mister Captain Takima, this is under-professor Kittan   
with the university science vessel Corona. We are contacting you   
to inform you that we have located an Artifact and request Fleet   
intervention to prevent contamination of said under article one   
four eight dash seventeen point three subsection nine clause four   
of the scientific authority documents of the one hundred nineteen   
thousand four hundred and fifty third convergence of the Holy   
Council of Jurai since the Reformation."  
  
Takima sighed, it was an Artifact then. At least with the   
hand-holding missions you occasionally got a Little excitement.   
But no, this was an Artifact mission. That meant one of those   
University stooges found a corroded old piece of an internal   
combustion engine on some desert planet and now the Fleet would   
have to waste thousands of man and ship hours protecting it from   
any would-be treasure hunters.   
  
"Alright under-professor, transmit the coordinates and I'll   
scramble the planetary confinement squadron." Takima turned to   
his helmsman before continuing, "Prepare to rendezvous with USV   
Corona for Artifact protection."  
  
"Er.." The under-professor looked nervous. Apparently this   
part did not have a prepared script. "I.. um.. I don't think the   
placo team is.. um.. I don't think they've got quiet enough   
people, that is..."  
  
"What?" Takima's eyebrows rose as he turned back to the comm   
display, "What do you mean under-professor? They are equipped to   
handle any planet up to four Nebon-masses."  
  
"Well, yes," the under-professor replied uncomfortably, "But   
you see the thing of it is.. well, you see Nebon is just a gas-  
giant, even if it is a big one. But it's just a planet you know..   
and well, you see, this Artifact that we're dealing with... Well,   
it's sort of a whole solar system, and..."  
  
"A whole.. solar system?" Takima asked in profound   
disbelief. What were they up to now? Had they found a probe   
floating around some system and wanted to confine the whole thing?   
Those damn University snobs, they never thought about what their   
little schemes were going to do to the poor Fleet personnel who   
had to clean up...  
  
"Holy Tree," Takima gasped, his train of thought derailed by   
the image now floating in place of the nervous under-professor's   
head in the air before him, "What in the name of the seven sons of   
Jurai is That?"  
  
The 'that' in question was a mass of crystalline structures   
rotating in serene patterns around a blue-green star. They were   
arranged in concentric rings, but parts of the rings rotated   
around themselves or drifted slowly back and forth between   
circles. Takima noticed the time indicator in the corner of the   
recording and realized this it was supposedly in real-time. If the   
scale were as anything like as big as it looked those serene   
pieces of crystal were drifting back and forth at something close   
to sixty percent lightspeed.  
  
"That, Mister Captain Takima," said the under-professor, his   
head re-appearing in a window near the corner of the display, "Is   
the Artifact."  
  
* * *  
  
Ryouko opened her eyes to find Tenchi staring at her, a small   
smile playing about his lips.  
  
"Hi there," he whispered, "What're you doing up?"  
  
"I.. I had a nightmare," Ryouko replied quietly, pulling   
herself closer to him in the bed so she could lean her head   
against his chest. "I dreamed that you.. you were dead, and Aeka   
was going to make me go back in the cave."  
  
Tenchi wrapped his arms protectively around her and rubbed   
her back reassuringly.  
  
"Don't worry," Tenchi said softly, kissing her neck, "I'm   
here. I'm not going anywhere. Aeka wouldn't do anything like   
that. And you know you're never going back there."  
  
Ryouko nuzzled her cheek against Tenchi's chest and sighed   
contentedly. It was nice to have someone to hold you and tell you   
everything would be okay after a nightmare. Ryouko had long ago   
lost count of the number of times she wished for exactly that over   
the years between Tenchi freeing her and falling in love with her.   
She never told him, but nearly every time Tenchi had awoken to   
find her floating there, watching him sleep, was on a night that   
bad dreams troubled her own rest. Upon awakening from a nightmare   
she would go to him, hoping, however unrealistically, that he   
would wake up and hold her and tell her everything would be okay,   
just as he was now.  
  
"I.. I didn't talk in my sleep again, did I?" Ryouko asked,   
looking up at Tenchi's face. "Did I wake you?"  
  
"No," Tenchi smiled and shook his head, running his fingers   
through her hair, "You slept like an angel. That's why I was   
watching you. I had a nightmare too, but when I woke up and saw   
you lying there looking so.. so.. so perfect... I've just been   
watching you sleep since."  
  
Ryouko felt herself blushing and looked away from his smiling   
face, squeezing him tight and breathing in the scent of him while   
she hid her embarrassment against the muscles of his chest. "What   
was your nightmare about?" Ryouko asked eventually, feeling bad   
for not having been awake to comfort him as he had for her.  
  
Tenchi sighed before answering. "I dreamed you didn't want   
to marry me. You ran off on our wedding day with some guy you met   
before I knew you, and you said that it would be better that way   
because I was too boring for a person like you and I'd be better   
of with an Earth girl."  
  
Ryouko kissed his chest and smiled. "Well that's never going   
to happen," she promised, "For one, I never knew any guys before I   
met you. Not really anyway, and none of the ones I met were the   
kind anybody would run away with. Two, we're already married.   
And three, I was on Earth a lot longer than any girl you're likely   
to find, so as far as I'm concerned I Am an Earth girl."  
  
Tenchi looked puzzled and asked, "Already married? Did you   
forget to tell me about something that happened while I was   
unconscious?"  
  
Ryouko chuckled. "No dear, I didn't dress you up and get   
someone to marry us while you were passed out. But you asked me   
to marry you. You actually asked and wanted me to say yes... We   
both wanted it, we both said so, what do dresses and priests   
matter?"  
  
"Well what do you know," Tenchi said thoughtfully, "Here I've   
been a married man for going on four days now and I didn't even   
realize."  
  
"We're still having a ceremony though," Ryouko said   
seriously, "Us Earth girls like getting dressed up."  
  
Tenchi chuckled. "What kind of ceremony? Do you want a   
traditional Shinto one, or a western one? Or is there some kind   
of galactic standard thing?"  
  
"There are Jurain ceremonies for pretty much everything. I   
think they have four different ceremonial ways to wash your hands.   
But we can have whatever kind you want to Tenchi. I.. I never   
really believed I'd get to marry you. That it's happening will be   
enough for me."  
  
Tenchi yawned widely and arranged himself more comfortably   
against Ryouko before saying, "Well talk about it tomorrow, okay?"  
  
"Mmm," Ryouko agreed, sleep catching back up to her and her   
eyes sliding half shut. "We never got to have our wedding night   
though, Tenchi."  
  
Tenchi laughed softly, interrupted by another yawn. "Not   
tonight honey, I'm exhausted."  
  
"Mmm," Ryouko agreed again sleepily. She took one of his   
hands and guided it to her chest, as much so she could feel the   
rough texture of his fingers against her as for him to feel her   
heart beating reassuringly beneath his palm.  
  
* * *  
  
Ai blinked.   
  
In front of her stood a tree, perhaps three times her height   
at the top of its branches. Those branches were decorated with a   
scattering of leaves, each glittering like a tiny, perfect facet   
of some great, unseen stone. Silvery flames traced regularly up   
and down the tree's ancient bark in complex patterns that   
sometimes resembled words, sometimes running water, sometimes   
nothing at all. The branches of the tree rustled, though there   
was no breeze in the darkness.  
  
Ai looked around. It was dark, but for the light of the   
tree, and there seemed to be small streams in the smooth white   
floor upon which she stood. It seemed like the Inner Chamber, it   
had that strangely distant feel and her fingers tingled mildly,   
but Ai had no idea how she had come to be here. She remembered   
lying down next to Mataeo and closing her eyes... Then she was   
here.  
  
"Ai..." The voice was soft and feminine, but had that   
coming-from-everywhere quality of the voice of Jurai. It held a   
hint of familiarity, but the nature of the word, the way her name   
echoed around within her mind evading study, prevented her from   
discerning why.  
  
"Who.. who are you?" Ai asked hesitantly, her voice a   
whisper though she had meant it to be in normal tones, "You'e not   
the trees.. not like before anyway. How did I get here?"  
  
"I am Tsunami, Ai. Yes, the one the trees spoke of, the one   
Yousho called a goddess, the one who will one day be Sasami."  
  
Ai bowed toward the tree. She recognized it now, though the   
trees had not shown it to her. They had described it only as the   
First Tree, in tones of mixed reverence and the affection of a   
child for its mother, but there was no doubt in Ai's mind that   
this tree must be it. Why else would she be here?   
  
"Forgive me if I disrespect," Ai said cautiously, "I.. I do   
not know how to behave in the presence of a goddess. The trees   
showed me many ceremonies and traditions of Jurain worship, but   
I'm afraid they've all gotten mixed up in my head..."  
  
The voice laughed softly and said with all the gentleness of   
a mother for an infant, "Do not fear me Ai. I am the whole of   
creation, what are dances and bows measured against the birth of   
stars?"  
  
"Why did you..." Ai paused, reassurances to be at ease were   
one thing, but Tsunami was a goddess.. was it polite to question a   
goddess?  
  
"Why did I bring you here? I did not wish to disturb   
Sasami's sleep, she has had great difficulty these last days and I   
thought to spare her any further." Tsunami sighed, a gentle   
breeze that, oddly, did not stir the now stilled branches.   
"Tonight is the night of wandering spirits, Ai. That is a legend   
so old that even the trees do not remember it, but are not the   
oldest legends the ones of greatest truth? They are carried down   
in the minds of mortals and what was once fancy and fable is given   
the strength of belief and the reality of age.  
  
"On the night of wandering spirits it was said that the   
memories of one's past broke free of the mind and drifted,   
ghostlike, amongst the stars. In the times that people remembered   
that legend they would hang bright streamers in their windows and   
go to their beds wearing hand-decorated headbands so that their   
memories would know to whom to return after their night of   
wandering. It was said that dreams on this night would be of   
strongest truth, and that those things of which you dream would be   
those upon which your waking mind dwells. The people would take   
their dreams as guides on this night and use them to shape their   
lives away from discord."  
  
Tsunami chuckled softly, the sound in Ai's mind mirrored in   
the melody of the water around her. "But you wonder what this has   
to do with you, why I summoned you from your bed and the arms of   
your lover to tell you stories of an ancient myth."  
  
Ai tried to think of a respectful denial, but it was true.   
Those were her thoughts and she thought it better to be silently   
repentive than to bluster in contrition.  
  
"You are modest beyond your years, Fujihara Ai," Tsunami said   
in an elusive tone that Ai would have said came with a smile, were   
there anyone there to smile, "And you are right to wonder. It was   
millennia that I spent here alone in the dark Ai, until Sasami   
came and gave her life that I could walk the world again. But   
that is another story for another time. I brought you here to   
explain to you Ai, to explain that one question which the trees   
could not answer."  
  
"You mean.. why I could hear them? Why I was.. inside them?"  
  
"Yes, Ai. To be within the trees of Jurai is a complex   
thing, for them. It means to be within this chamber, but also to   
have ever been within the chamber, whether in body or in spirit.   
The trees were here long before I came, Ai, but in a sense they   
truly are my children now. I gave them some of my essence that   
they could speak with the humans who had come to their world.   
  
"They were never very strict about matters dealing with time,   
to them time was a direction of travel, a way that things tended   
to drift. Humans confused them deeply for they seemed to move so   
quickly about in time, much faster than rocks or the stars. And   
with my influence their sense of the separation of events into   
sequence grew even more diffuse. Now they simply see moments,   
scattered across the great web of existence like gems scattered   
across a table. To be within them is to be a shining star within   
the depths of time, to have once entered their consciousness and   
become a moment gathered. When they recognized you as an Other, a   
conscious being who existed within them, they saw that you had   
been here before, that you existed already as a moment."  
  
Ai frowned and said, "Yes, I sensed that when they spoke to   
me... But how could I have been here before? I had no idea that   
Jurai even existed until a few days ago."  
  
"Do you remember a story Ai," Tsunami asked, "Of how your   
ancestor fell in love with a forest spirit?"  
  
"Yes," Ai said slowly, wondering what this might have to do   
with the trees, "Every year in September mother would make   
something sweet and tell me the story while we ate. She said it   
was a tradition in her family to do that because her distant   
grandfather had left out sweets for the forest spirit to lure her   
to his home, and that it was in the fall that he finally won her   
love."  
  
"That is the one," Tsunami agreed, again with the smiling   
tone, "Embellished by time, but still it has a grain of truth at   
its heart. She was not a forest spirit, Ai, though she must have   
seemed one to your ancestor. She was of Jurai, of a minor and   
distant branch of the noble House, but she lost her memory when   
her ship-tree crashed on Earth. I know her story because her tree   
broadcast it to the stars that her sisters might know the story of   
how her Other-sister had found love, but by that time the tree was   
weak and the message did not travel far. That she broadcast it at   
all is enough, now that I wish to know it, but I am afraid that   
her fellow trees shall never hear the song.  
  
"Your mother told you that the forest spirit was lured over   
time by your ancestor's treats, but in truth it was only one   
incident. It was some dessert he was preparing, your family   
remembers that correctly, and its scent lured the confused woman   
to his home. He lived alone, isolated from the world out amidst   
the forest, and had it been otherwise she may have avoided the   
house from caution. She was lost and afraid, unable to remember   
who she was or where she had come from, only that she had awoken   
in a forest, her arm injured and something important missing.   
  
"When your grandfather found her at his doorstep he thought   
her to be a forest spirit. She was very beautiful, and there were   
bits of wood and pieces of leaves tangled in her hair from where   
she had fallen. Coupled with the strange clothing she wore that   
was enough to convince a man of his time. At first he feared for   
the ill fortune she might bring, thinking she had been expelled   
from the realm of the spirits to dwell with mortals for some sin.   
But she had nowhere to go and only sat, crying quietly, outside   
his home.  
  
"Finally he relented and allowed her in, giving her food and   
a bed on which to sleep. He tended to her injured arm and made   
his next trip to the nearest village early so he could get her   
fresh clothing to wear. She did not speak his language, so stayed   
behind on that trip.  
  
"As she learned to speak Japanese your ancestor was delighted   
by her intelligence and the wonder with which she treated even the   
smallest things. With no one else to talk to they became friends,   
and as time went by that friendship grew to something more.   
Eventually they saw it to be love, and they were married and their   
children are your mother's ancestors. She never remembered who   
she was, and eventually thought that she might truly have been the   
forest spirit your grandfather took her for. She held a close   
affinity for trees and all her life she wandered the forest around   
her new home, searching for something she could not put a name to.   
  
"Despite her fruitless quest she was happy, and her tree saw   
her happiness. When she saw that her Other-sister would have a   
happy life with this man she had found the tree let herself take   
root, using the last of her fading power and her last conscious   
act to send the song of her tale to the stars, hoping to share it   
with her kin."  
  
Ai sighed as the last images faded from her mind. A noble   
tree, its leaves aglow with alien light where it stood in the   
forest, and superimposed upon it her many times over great   
grandparents, a woman of ethereal beauty and a ruggedly handsome   
man. Ai did not know if the images came from Tsunami or her own   
imagination, but the story was far better than the one told by her   
mother each year. "That.. that was beautiful," Ai said quietly,   
closing her eyes to savor the emotions evoked by the tale.   
Eventually she opened them and asked, "So I am part Jurain then?   
The trees saw me as my ancestor?"  
  
"Yes," Tsunami replied, "A tiny part, separated by generation   
upon generation, but the song of the trees is still in your blood.   
They recognized the part of you that is your ancestor from the   
moment gathered when she was brought to the Inner Chamber for her   
naming day. There are many such moments and your link is   
separated by generations, but it was there all the same."  
  
Ai was unsure how to respond. It was strange and wonderful,   
certainly. The story of her ancestors was as magical as any   
legend, and she felt honored to be linked to the vast age and   
intelligence of the trees, but she did not understand why Tsunami   
had chosen now to tell her all this.  
  
Tsunami chuckled softly, responding to Ai's unvoiced   
thoughts. "I am sorry Ai. Tonight is a night for dreams and   
memories and even a goddess grows lonely at times. I merely   
wished to share an old story with you on this night of stories,   
and hoped to give you an answer you could not find yourself. I   
will return you to your bed now, sleep well Fujihara Ai."  
  
  
Ai opened her eyes slowly and saw Mataeo there next to her in   
bed, sound asleep. Had it all been a dream then? But it had the   
clarity of reality, not the mistiness of a fading dream.  
  
"Thank you Tsunami," Ai whispered, snuggling closer to Mataeo   
and closing her eyes once more, "Thank you for the story of my   
grandparents."  
  
It may have been her imagination, or a waking dream, but a   
breeze seemed to momentarily stir the air of the windowless room.  
  
* * *  
  
Nobuyuki squeezed the little box in his pocket for courage   
and stepped forward from the shadows of the hallway. He walked   
purposefully toward the great doors, trying not to look around   
nervously for the Guardians he knew were there somewhere.  
  
"Malao nimana," a voice at Nobuyuki's shoulder commanded. He   
jumped, turning to look at the young man who had seemingly   
materialized at his side.  
  
"I.. I don't speak Jurain," Nobuyuki said, worrying that this   
might pose a problem. He had not counted on the language barrier   
in his plans.  
  
"Ah, one of the princesses' guests, no?" Asked an older man   
wearing an identical uniform to the first as he approached from   
behind Nobuyuki and to the left. His Japanese was clear and   
touched only by a light accent.  
  
"You should not be here honored guest," explained the first   
guardian, "This way leads to the Inner Chamber, it is forbidden to   
people not of the House."  
  
"My name is Nobuyuki," Nobuyuki said, hoping to put himself   
back on his planned course of action, "Masaki Nobuyuki. I am   
Tenchi's father, have you met Tenchi?"  
  
The guardians exchanged a glance before shaking their heads   
in unison. "No, honored guest Nobuyuki," said the older, "We do   
not believe we have met Tenchi. He is the one who was previously   
to be married to the crown princess?"  
  
Nobuyuki nodded, glad they had at least heard of his son.   
"That's him!"  
  
"We are honored to be in the presence of a relative of one   
who is held in such high regard by the most high of the House,"   
the guardians said together, bowing and tapping their chests   
formally. After they straightened the younger man frowned and   
said, "But I am sorry, we still must insist that you not go any   
neared the doors, it is forbidden."  
  
Nobuyuki sighed, he had hoped his connections might bear him   
through on their own merit. He debated for long moments while the   
guardians stared at him impassively; apparently he could stand   
there all night if he wanted to, so long as he got no nearer the   
doors. Finally he pressed his lips together in determination and   
drew the little box from his pocket. The guardians' staves were   
drawn upright at his motion, then relaxed when they saw it   
appeared to only be some sort of ornamental container.  
  
"There is something I must do," Nobuyuki said seriously,   
looking back and forth between them, "It is a promise between   
myself and a woman whom I loved very much, and now that I have the   
opportunity I cannot break my vow. She.. she said that I might   
not be allowed in, if I ever managed to find my way here. And if   
that happened I was to show the guardians this." Nobuyuki opened   
the ring box so they could see its contents and watched in   
satisfaction as their eyes widened.  
  
"You.. you may enter, honored sir," said the older of the two   
when he had closed the box once more and replaced it in his   
pocket. "The doors may not allow a person not of the House, but   
if you can gain entry we will not stop you." They bowed together   
and turned, still bent, before rising and walking in matched step   
away from Nobuyuki.  
  
*Well that was easy,* Nobuyuki thought. He turned away from   
the retreating guardians and back toward the great doors.   
  
Nobuyuki touched the door plate gingerly and closed his fist   
around the box in his pocket.   
  
"Achika," he whispered, bowing his head against the wood of   
the portal, "I'm here Achika. I've finally come, will you let me   
in?"  
  
The doors parted slowly before Nobuyuki, and swung shut once   
more behind him.  
  
  
Nobuyuki looked up at the tree before him. He knew this was   
the right one, though they all looked the same. Achika told him   
that the path would lead only to the tree he wanted, and this was   
the only tree he had come across while travelling the twisting   
paths.  
  
"Hello," Nobuyuki said nervously, performing a small bow to   
the ancient tree. "I am called Masaki Nobuyuki. My wife was   
Achika, daughter of Yousho."  
  
"Yes..." The voice was soft and feminine in Nobuyuki's mind   
and came as though from a great distance. "We know that Other...   
You are newly within us, Masaki Nobuyuki... How may we do for an   
Other whos moment is so close to that of Yousho?"  
  
"I.. I want to talk to my wife," Nobuyuki explained. "She   
said you could do that."  
  
"We are sorry, Masaki Nobuyuki... Your wife is not within   
us..."  
  
"She gave me this," Nobuyuki said, removing the box once more   
from his pocket. He opened it and carefully lifted the little   
wooden plaque, etched with a tall, thin tree. Beneath it was a   
twist of hair, tied around a tiny branch from which sprouted a   
single green leaf. "She said if I gave it to you she could be   
within you, and I could talk to her again."  
  
Nobuyuki took the lock of his wife's hair from the box and   
replaced the wooden seal she had given him before stowing it back   
in his pocket. He stepped forward and knelt at the edge of the   
tree's pond. "Please?" Nobuyuki asked, his voice shaking, "I   
don't know your name, but Achika said you would be kind. Please   
help me? I miss her so, I just want to talk to her one last   
time... Please?"  
  
"You may call us Anomi, Other," the voice said replied   
gently, "Place your token in our water and we will do."  
  
Nobuyuki lay the lock of hair and its twig in the water,   
watching as it drifted toward the tree despite the lack of any   
sort of current in the pool. There was a sound like glass bells   
being struck and thin rays of prismatic light shone down into the   
water from Anomi's leaves.  
  
"Dream, Other..." Anomi's voice came to Nobuyuki as from a   
great distance. "Let your moment be as one with that which you   
seek..."  
  
  
Nobuyuki looked around the little room in confusion. He   
could not remember how he had come to be here. It was his father-  
in-law's house, out at his shrine in the mountains. There was   
light coming in through an open window and shining on the smooth,   
lacquered black wood of the table at which he knelt.   
  
*How did I get here?* Nobuyuki wondered, *Where was I just   
before this? Somewhere far away.. but I don't remember...*  
  
Nobuyuki turned at the sound of a door sliding open and   
smiled. Achika was wearing her purple kimono, she always wore one   
when they were here at her father's place. The old man said they   
reminded him of times when life was less complicated, and Achika   
always indulged her father.  
  
"How is he?" Nobuyuki asked as Achika knelt across from him.  
  
She smiled, a radiant smile that never failed to lighten   
Nobuyuki's heart. "Tenchi is sleeping," she said, "Mother and   
Father took him down to that cave again and he's all worn out."  
  
"I've missed you Achika," Nobuyuki said, memory of where he   
had been and what he was now doing returning in a sudden flash.  
  
Achika took his hand across the table and looked down at it,   
running her fingers across the lines of his palm. "We were happy   
in our time Nobuyuki."  
  
"Can I stay here?" Nobuyuki asked, already knowing the   
answer. "Can't I just stay and be with you?"  
  
"Not yet," Achika smiled sadly. "You have life yet to live   
No." She squeezed his hand in hers and her smile turned to one of   
anticipation. "But you're a part of Jurai now, and you've made me   
a part of them too. When your time comes your spirit will find   
me, and we can be together again."  
  
Nobuyuki sighed. "It's so hard Achika. Seeing Tenchi with   
Ryouko makes me happy, the first time I've really been happy since   
you died, but it makes me remember too. I go to your grave every   
weekend and pray, you know."  
  
"You don't have to do that No. I knew you loved me, and you   
know it in your heart. That's what counts."  
  
"I haven't been with anybody else," Nobuyuki said, looking   
away from her eyes, "Not since you. I pretended to be a dirty old   
hentai so the girls would leave me alone." Nobuyuki chuckled and   
squeezed Achika's hand. "I guess I pretended too good, huh? Even   
I believed it most of the time."  
  
Achika grinned at him. "You just wait No, when you get back   
here we'll see how you like getting all tied up."  
  
Nobuyuki blushed and she continued, "But you don't have to   
stay alone for me No. Be happy. Our moments will be forever,   
don't hold me so tight that the rest of the world slips away."  
  
Nobuyuki shook his head. "I can't Achika.. I can't be with   
somebody else. Not ever. You were the only woman for me, and you   
always will be."  
  
Achika sighed. "You always were a hopeless romantic   
Nobuyuki."  
  
Nobuyuki sat with her in silence for a time, letting his eyes   
memorize again the curve of her face and trying to hold in the way   
that her hand felt in his so he would never lose it again.  
  
"I can't do this again, can I?" Nobuyuki asked finally.  
  
Achika shook her head sadly. "No.. the power for this was   
there only once. Was it worth it, No?"  
  
Nobuyuki nodded without hesitation. "To be with you again..   
anything is worth that."  
  
"You have to go back now No," Achika said gently, taking both   
his hands in hers. "Take a picture for me, on my son's wedding   
day? And make sure he remembers his mother loved him? I didn't   
tell him often enough."  
  
Nobuyuki nodded, Achika blurring as tears filled his eyes.   
"I will. I'll take a thousand pictures for you, Achika."  
  
Nobuyuki felt her fading and saw the light around him   
dimming. Achika started to take her hands from his, but Nobuyuki   
squeezed them desperately. "Don't let go," he begged, "Please,   
hold my hands Achika."  
  
"I will," Achika promised, the same words she had spoken to   
the same request years ago on the day she died, "I'll hold them   
Nobuyuki. Can you feel me?"  
  
Nobuyuki bowed his head, shutting his eyes so he would not   
have to look at the tree or the pool or the endless pathways. He   
stared into the darkness behind his eyelids and tried to hold   
Achika there. "I do, Achika. I feel you."  
  
* * *  
  
Something has come.  
  
Yes, something different. Alive.  
  
What does it wish?  
  
It has many desires. Perhaps it is more things than one?  
  
Another We?  
  
There can not be another like We. We is alone. We has   
always been alone.  
  
What will it do?  
  
It does many things. The knowing of what it will do is   
strange.  
  
We will watch this new thing.  
  
Yes.  
  
* * *  



	2. jurai

glass2.html

** Note **  
** This is chapter 2 of Reflections on a Shattered Glass. If you have not read chapter 1, you are in the wrong place.  
** Happy reading,  
** -- Krin (krin@hotmail.com mailto:krin@hotmail.com)  
** http://www.geocities.com/mode6.geo/fanfic/  
** /Note **  


  
Reflections of a Shattered Glass   
  
-- two --  
  
Jurai  


  
  
"Hey Sammy!" Ryouko called down the corridor she and Tenchi traveled to the young woman walking toward them, head hung low and trailing a pair of guardians.   
  
The halls of Jurai's royal palace were labyrinthine in their complexity, primarily the product of hundreds of millennia of slow, unplanned expansion. Ryouko and Tenchi had wandering aimlessly for much of the morning through wide corridors floored with a sort of thick cloth padding, softer than the carpets of Earth but requiring a bit of adjustment for someone not used to the sensation.   
  
While Tenchi lay in the hospital most of the others had come to visit at one point or another, but their party had not been together in one place and simultaneously conscious since leaving the campground. So now Ryouko and Tenchi were searching for the rest of their family in the hopes of calling a reunion to explain what had happened the previous day and figure out what to do now. The camping trip was over. Though Jurai seemed a good place to spend their holiday they had not had much luck so far. The Guardians were unhelpful at best, always very closed-mouthed about anything involving any of the royal family and not kept briefed on the location of the literally hundreds of guests to the palace, so Sasami was their first discovery.  
  
The Guardians moved around the princess, quickening their pace when Sasami hurried toward her friends. When she was a few yards away they stopped, crossing their staves to prevent Sasami from approaching closer.  
  
"Ganaoi shokae," the younger Guardian said sternly, "Minos nikk tille he nef."  
  
Tenchi touched Ryouko's mind uncertainly asking, //You speak Jurain, right? What did he ask?//  
  
//It was more like a command,// Ryouko responded, //Jurains lift the end of a phrase to show they expect you to comply, not for questions. He wants to know who we are and what we want with Sasami.//  
  
Sasami frowned from behind the crossed staves. "These are my friends," she explained, pushing the wooden poles aside, "Speak Japanese when we're around them."  
  
The guardians looked pointedly away from the princess as she stepped between them and tapped their staves, just above the textured area of the grip, before saying together in perfect Japanese, "Yes highness. As you have spoken, we obey."  
  
"Hi Sasami," Tenchi said, glancing nervously at the guardians who were now facing the walls, "What's wrong? You looked kind of down."  
  
Sasami sighed. "It's complicated," she said, twitching her head slightly toward the guardians behind her. She frowned, wrinkling her nose and looking down at the padded floor for a moment before brightening and asking, "Say, do you wanna go to the gardens? There's an entertainer there for the morning."  
  
"Well, we were just looking-" Tenchi stopped when Ryouko nudged his ribs meaningfully.  
  
"Sure Sasami," she said with a warm smile, "That sounds great."  
  
  
//I thought we were going to look for everybody?// Tenchi asked as they followed the princess' two guardians, the pair having inserted themselves between Sasami and her friends, apparently for the duration of the walk.  
  
//Sasami looked upset, and she obviously can't talk about it in front of her guards,// Ryouko explained. //She can probably go to the gardens without them and wants to talk to us alone, that's why she mentioned it. And since Sasami can command the the guards we'll find everyone much more quickly if she helps.//  
  
  
Tenchi leaned against the back of the bench from which they watched the entertainer. He was a small, man-shaped creature with thick, wrinkled, purple skin and a fringe of hair-thin, writhing tentacles surrounding each eye. Sasami said he was from some world with a large number of 'k' sounds in its name that Tenchi did not think he would remember even had he heard it a dozen times rather than just once. His hands, overly long things of only three fingers, wove intricate rhythms in the air and a bird made of light flapped glittering wings above them. His art was something like a cross between shadow puppetry and a neon sign. Sasami explained that his race could weave delicate forcefields and that their entertainers used them to hold glowing, electrified gasses much the way earthlings used glass tubes. It was a stunning display and the three had been sitting and watching the little purple man weave threads of light in patterns that occasionally seemed only symbolic and, most often, took the form of strange animals, for nearly an hour.  
  
Sasami's guardians had reluctantly separated from their charge at the gate to the garden courtyard. Apparently it marked a boundary within the palace beyond which the royal family could walk unaccompanied. She explained that she really was not upset, just having a hard time readjusting to palace life after so long away from it. Before leaving with Aeka she had been restrained to the inner palace for safety and hoped that with her Change she would be allowed more of a free reign over her own actions, but was now discovering that the palace staff seemed to keep an even closer eye on her than before. Since being separated from Nobuyuki after their arrival in the palace she had not had a chance to see any of them between being fitted for a new wardrobe and briefed by the guardians on what areas of the palace she could visit without accompaniment. Apparently such things shifted almost daily depending on the location of certain visitors whos motives Jurain intelligence did not entirely trust.  
  
Ryouko had suggested that she simply could have had her friends summoned to her, but Sasami frowned and said it would not have felt right. She was a princess, true, but she had spent the past four years on Earth living a life not at all like the one a princess of the House Jurai would expect. Now she felt more like Sammy, a teenage student attending highschool in Tokyo, than like Sasami Jurai, second in line for the throne of an empire.   
  
Ryouko and Tenchi talked her around to having the guardians invite, Sasami was very specific that it be only an invitation, Washuu and Ryou-ohki to the park and now the cabbit sat in her lap where she sat on the ground, leaning back against Ryouko's knees. Washuu had begged off the invitation, sending her apologies and a promise to be along as soon as she took care of something.  
  
Ryouko laughed, taking one hand from Sasami's shoulders to point past the princess at the figure floating in the air above the entertainer's supple hands. She started on a quiet story about the home world of the many-limbed creature that quickly absorbed Sasami's attention as she watched the writhing light-sculpture.  
  
*If Ryouko looked a few years older I'd swear she was Sasami's mother,* Tenchi thought wistfully, *I wonder if either of them realizes the way they act together?* He had tried discussing it with Ryouko once a couple of months ago, but she seemed shocked by the idea that someone could mistake her for Sasami's parent and he quickly dropped the subject. He tried hard to avoid mentioning children around her most of the time, in fact. It was not that she was incapable of having them. She explained some time ago, her face flushed and her voice quiet, that it was important he wear protection when they were together because her body was easily capable of overcoming any prophylactics her mother could give her, even without a conscious command to do so.   
  
No, Tenchi avoided talking about children with Ryouko because she was terribly afraid she would not make a good mother. He thought it was silly, especially after seeing her with Sasami, but Ryouko was adamant. Her difficulties with Taro, coupled with doubts about her depth of experience in any sort of normal dealings with other humans, had Ryouko convinced she was incapable of properly caring for and raising a child. Tenchi knew she wanted one though, deep down. He could see it in her eyes and feel it across their bond when she saw a mother with a young child, and she was always delighted to help when Sasami came to her with a problem. Ryouko had been the weapon of a madman for a very long time, and the pleasure she derived from her newfound role as nurturer and confidant was phenomenal. Not that she would admit it, even to herself.  
  
Tenchi sighed quietly and slid his arm around Ryouko's waist. He was sure she would make a wonderful mother, but was more than content to wait until she was ready. In worrying about Ryouko's feelings Tenchi had put his own off to one side, having spent only scant moments wondering about his own opinions on child-rearing. Now that he considered the idea Tenchi was not sure he was any better prepared for it than Ryouko felt she was. He was, after all, only a college freshman and it was not so long ago that he had undertaken his father's manhood ritual. Tenchi knew he did want to have a child, some day. He liked the idea of having someone to teach the things he knew and thought it would be nice experiencing what fond memories of time with his father he held from the other end. But that day, he felt, was still a ways off and he would wait until Ryouko was ready before even approaching the concept for himself. Until then he was glad she had Sasami to take care of and hoped the princess would be returning with them to Earth. The apartment would feel very empty without her cheerful presence and he knew Ryouko would miss her terribly.   
  
*I would too,* Tenchi thought, smiling when Sasami laughed delightedly at Ryouko's story, *I guess if Ryouko's acting as her mother that would make me the father. Maybe I should try to talk to her more.. she always goes to Ryouko if she's upset and I don't want her to think I don't care too.*  
  
  
"Highness, the woman you summoned." The speaker was a guardian, a man in his apparent middle years followed by Washuu who was, in turn, followed by a young-looking guardian. *I wonder if they're all paired up like that,* Tenchi thought, *It seems like they always go around in pairs.. one old, one young. I'll have to ask Ryouko about it.*  
  
"Thank you," Sasami said, tipping her head formally, "You may go now."  
  
The guardian tapped his chest twice and bowed. "Highness, his majesty has requested that his daughters and their guests attend him for the evening meal."  
  
Sasami nodded. "Please assure his majesty that the minos will be in attendance." She turned, her tone dropping the formality with which she spoke to the guardian. "Do you two wanna eat dinner with my dad?"  
  
The guardian looked shocked, though it was obvious he was trying to hide it.  
  
"Sure Sammy," Ryouko answered for the pair, "We'd love to."  
  
Sasami turned back to the bearded guardian and said, "Nashim Tenchi and his fiancee will also be in attendance. I will inquire with my other guests and inform the staff at a later time."  
  
The guardian's eyes widened and moved to Tenchi. He mouthed the word 'nashim,' apparently unaware of his own lips' movement. Remembering himself he looked hurriedly away and bowed deeply, his forehead actually passing below the plane of his waist, and tapped his chest again, nervously, before turning away. He did not straighten until he was two steps further away from the bench. Then he said, without looking back, "His majesty will be informed. As you have spoken, we obey."  
  
Washuu, who had stepped out of the guardian's way as he joined his companion to leave the gardens, smiled and sat down next to Ryouko on the side opposite Tenchi.  
  
"Er," Tenchi asked nervously, rubbing his neck, "What was all that about? What's a 'nashim'? And how'd you know about me and Ryouko? I didn't think anybody but Washuu and my grandfather knew."  
  
Sasami flushed. "I'm sorry," she apologized, "I didn't mean to, but I kinda saw about you proposing while I was Tsunami at the campground. I hope I didn't mess anything up?"  
  
Tenchi shook his head. "No, we were going to tell everybody as soon as we could get them in one place. But what was he so upset about?"  
  
Sasami looked uncomfortable and Ryouko only shook her head, she had no more idea than he did, so Washuu took the burden of explanation. "Nashim is a Jurain honorary, Tenchi. It means something like 'one who would be king but has taken the path of humility.' It's very, very rarely used. Sasami's responses to the guardian were conditioned by her lessons and she used the title automatically."  
  
Sasami nodded, then frowned. "How'd you know that? Nobody's supposed to know what I got taught."  
  
Washuu grinned. "We geniuses have to have a few secrets, don't we?"  
  
"Hi mommy," Ryou-ohki said, startling everyone. She had hopped away from Sasami and assumed her humanoid form during Washuu's explanation.   
  
"Hello Ryou-ohki," Washuu replied with a smile, "Having fun with your sister?"  
  
Ryou-ohki nodded excitedly. "Uh huh. We watch.. purple man make bird." Ryou-ohki's speech was improving quickly thanks to her long association with telepathic communication, but it was still a little rough. "You find Mihoshi and Kiyone, mommy?"  
  
Tenchi, Ryouko, and Sasami turned as one to look curiously at the scientist.  
  
"I was looking for them earlier," Washuu explained, "That's why I didn't come straight here. I realized I had only seen them once since we got here, and then only down a hallway walking with a pair of guardians. I wanted to talk to Kiyone about.. about an experiment she's helping me with."  
  
Ryouko quirked an eyebrow but refrained from asking. Tenchi followed her lead, if Washuu did not volunteer any information about an experiment she probably was not ready to discuss it at all. She got that way with any big projects, she would clam up about them completely for days at a time. Then it would reach some turning point and it was all they could do to get her to talk about anything else for five minutes.  
  
"So did you find them?" Tenchi asked.  
  
Washuu nodded. "You won't believe it, but they were in jail."  
  
"What?!" The exclamation came simultaneously from all four listeners, slightly delayed from Ryou-ohki as she struggled momentarily to remember the word.  
  
Washuu grinned. "Yep. Apparently they were found wandering around the inner palace after being dropped in an unused bedroom by the portal. They left their IDs back on Earth so couldn't prove who they were. There was some kind of screw up with the paperwork and nobody called to confirm their story until I tracked them down in the holding cells."  
  
Sasami frowned deeply. "That's not right. Aeka and I told the Guardians that any of our friends found anywhere in the palace were to be treated as honored guests."   
  
Sasami stood and walked to the nearest tree, little more than sapling. She touched the trunk and whispered something under her breath. Moments later the pair of Guardians who had accompanied Washuu came running up the path.  
  
"Azaka," Sasami said, turning to the younger of the pair, "I wish an investigation of the guards supervising the palace's prison facilities."  
  
The guardian bowed, tapping his chest. "As you have spoken, we obey."  
  
When they were gone Tenchi asked, "Azaka? That's wasn't.. was it?"  
  
Sasami shook her head. "No, that Azaka's still on Earth. Guardians take names passed down from the first guardians to emperor Himori. Aeka's bodyguards were given nodori, the log bodies they have, when they were killed in battle. Since they died their names got put back in the pool for new guardians."  
  
Tenchi scratched his head. "Sounds confusing."  
  
Sasami shrugged. "I guess. It's just how it is."  
  
"So the girls are out of jail?" Ryouko asked her mother.  
  
Washuu nodded. "They called Dalris and got their identities confirmed, so they let them go and apologized for fifteen minutes. Kiyone's going to file a complaint with GP headquarters."  
  
"Are you going to come to dinner with us mom?" Ryouko asked.  
  
"Can me come?" Ryou-ohki asked before Washuu had a chance to respond. "I want eat too, and wear dress like Sammy?"  
  
"Can I come," Washuu corrected, "Well Sasami, is Ryou-ohki invited too?"  
  
Sasami blinked, slowly focusing on the scientist. "I'm sorry," she shook her head as if to clear it, "What?"  
  
Ryouko frowned. "Are you okay Sasami?"  
  
Sasami nodded. "I'm sorry, I was.. I was thinking about something."  
  
"I asked if Ryou-ohki could come to dinner tonight as well."  
  
"Oh," Sasami smiled brightly, "Of course she can!"  
  
Ryou-ohki clapped furry hands and smiled for a moment, then frowned and furrowed her eyebrows. "I not have any pretty dress here."  
  
"Yeah," Ryouko agreed, "All my clothes are back on Earth. I had to borrow these from a nurse while I was waiting for Tenchi to wake up."  
  
Tenchi, who was wearing a simple outfit of dark greens gained of similar means, agreed. "I don't know much about Jurain clothes, but I don't think these would be appropriate for dinner with the king. And I know none of the rest have anything formal with them."  
  
"Oh, that's okay," Sasami said, "I'll get the lady that has all my clothes made to get you some. We should probably go do that now.. it'll take a few hours and you'll need 'em in time to get ready for dinner. I'll have the Guardians find everybody."  
  
* * *  
  
Aeka looked nervously around in the gathering darkness. She had only been down to Tsunami's tree once in her life. All members of the House Jurai had to visit her tree for their naming day, but she barely remembered it. Strange shapes seemed to flow in the distance down here where the white walls grew dark and the light of the air seemed to fade.   
  
Originally Aeka planned to speak with the goddess last, but somehow this interview seemed least difficult of the three she knew she must make. At first she thought Katsuhito would be easiest to talk to, having spent the past four years living near him, but slowly realized that she was dreading the answers he might give to her questions. She could think of no reason why he would have done what he did, letting her fall in love with Tenchi when he knew all along that he was pushing him toward Ryouko. Her questions for Tsunami were along a similar line, but she did not really expect an answer from the goddess. Aeka had been taught all her life that Tsunami was beyond mortal reckoning and so she felt, deep down, that she would probably get little more than that Tsunami's actions were part of the affairs of the gods and not for her mortal ears. And as for her father... Aeka could barely think about that conversation.  
  
"Hello Aeka."  
  
The crown princess looked up at the sound of Tsunami's voice. She had been staring at her feet as she walked, concentrating against growing resistance to keep the path she followed leading toward Tsunami's tree. Space worked differently within the Inner Chamber, and your direction of travel depended more upon your desires than the way your feet moved. To approach the very center was like walking into a gale, but now the resistance seemed to fade away to little more than a gentle breeze.   
  
Tsunami had taken her older form, the one in which she appeared on the night Aeka spoke with her at the onsen, and somehow it reassured the princess. She had chosen to come here rather than to speak with the goddess through Sasami in the hopes that her sister would not hear her conversation. Aeka was not sure if it would work, but she knew Sasami was still upset over the incident that had taken place upon her return to Earth and did not wish her to hear what she had to say to Tsunami today.  
  
When Aeka came home through the portal she went first to Sasami, only to find her sister sitting outside by the lake reading a book, wearing an extremely tight t-shirt and a pair of shorts so short Aeka felt they should be more properly classified as some sort of wide thong. Aeka knew Earth styles were different from those of Jurai, and tried to keep herself calm, but Sasami saw through her immediately. When Aeka gave up and demanded Sasami go change into something more appropriate the younger princess grew angry and shouted that Aeka should stop trying to control her life. She was a big girl now, she said, and her friends and Ryouko and Tenchi all treated her like a big girl and it was time Aeka did too. She said she did not need her sister to tell her what to wear anymore and that if she wanted to wear clothes like those she would. Aeka tried to explain that as her older sister it was her duty to make sure Sasami did nothing to harm herself, and that wearing such clothes was an invitation to lecherous types who would try to take advantage of her. Sasami looked truly angry then and stormed off to the house without saying another word. Later they apologized quietly to one another, simple 'I'm sorry'-es without any sort of explanations behind them. Aeka knew her sister was still upset about it, but did not know what to do. She knew Sasami looked like an adult now, but to see her little sister dressing that way.. and to have her yell at her.. it was all too much.  
  
Now, facing a fully adult Tsunami Aeka felt her confidence bolstered. She had begun to think of the goddess as looking like her sister, and found that being able to separate the two made the words come more easily.   
  
"Tsunami," Aeka said with a deep bow. There were no titles in Jurain for gods. One simply referred to them by name, an honor accorded not even to the emperor. "I wished to speak with you."  
  
Tsunami nodded. "I know Aeka. But I'm afraid I have no answers for you. I did not give Yousho those visions. Until Sasami's Change I did not even have the ability to know beyond the boundaries of the trees."  
  
"What?" Aeka asked, startled. She had expected something other than a straightforward answer, perhaps even some sort of cryptic goddess-like response, but not an outright denial. "You mean he lied?"  
  
"No. Your brother believed the visions to be from me, but they were not."  
  
"Then, who?"  
  
Tsunami shrugged but a compassionate smile lit her eyes to show Aeka her lack of answers was not from lack of concern. "Perhaps he invented them himself as explanation for his actions. Humans are remarkably good at seeing what they want to see."  
  
"You.. you don't know?"  
  
"Perhaps you should ask him about this, Aeka?" Tsunami asked, raising her eyebrows and tilting her head slightly, "Would you wish me to discuss your actions with another?"  
  
Aeka shook her head slowly. "No, I suppose not." She sighed and said, "Well, there are two other things I wished to speak with you about."  
  
Tsunami nodded, but remained silent.  
  
"I wanted first to thank you," Aeka said, "For your help in taking me to Tokimi's realm, and for the knowledge you gave me to guide me there."  
  
Tsunami smiled. "You would have found the way on your own eventually."  
  
Aeka nodded. "Yes, but it would have been too late by then."  
  
Tsunami smiled silently.  
  
"Thank you, Tsunami."  
  
"The other thing?" Tsunami asked.  
  
"Oh, yes," Aeka shifted uncomfortably, "I.. I wished to speak with you about Sasami. I am very grateful for your actions yesterday, but I do not appreciate what you are doing to my sister."  
  
"I show her nothing she cannot accept," Tsunami said seriously, her smile dropping by a fraction.  
  
"That's not the same as showing her what she should have to accept."  
  
"No, perhaps not. But she will one day become me as I will become her. There are many things amongst the worlds worse than the glimpses of your memories she gained through me."  
  
Aeka sighed heavily. "Is it really necessary for her to see all that? She's only a little girl..."  
  
"Sasami is not a little girl anymore, Aeka," Tsunami said gently, stepping forward to rest her hand on the princess' shoulder. "She has had her Change and by the customs of this world that makes her an adult. She has the emotions of an adult and is very intelligent. I have seen many older people who display far less wisdom than does your sister."  
  
Aeka sighed, "I suppose I simply cannot stop imagining her as the little girl I left behind when I returned to Jurai."  
  
"She is your sister, Aeka," Tsunami said, squeezing Aeka's shoulder comfortingly, "She always will be. When we are one, we will be your sister then too. She loves you, it is important that you remember that. But she is not a child any longer. Picture her as the little girl she was in your mind's eye if you will Aeka, but treat her for the adult she has become or she will grow to resent you."  
  
"I.. You're right, of course. But.. pretty soon she's going to be going out with boys. I think there's even a boy she likes.. Eti or Ito or something. What if she wants advice about dealing with men? Or about these Earth clothing styles she wears now? How can I act as her elder sister when I cannot help her with her problems?"  
  
"Be there for Sasami when she comes to you Aeka, and she will ask no more. She knows the things you cannot help her with and she will find her answers elsewhere, but in cases when she needs you there is no other who will do. Remember that and be her sister for her. And do not resent those to whom she goes with problems you have admitted you cannot solve."  
  
Aeka frowned, trying to discern the meaning of Tsunami's words. "You mean.. if she goes to.. to Ryouko, about men, or clothes, or to Washuu, I should just let her? But what if she gets.. what if they tell her the wrong things?"  
  
"Do not believe you are the only one who loves your sister Aeka."  
  
Aeka sighed. "Everything is so confusing now."  
  
"All things are confusion Aeka. It is the nature of change, and all things change."  
  
Aeka cautiously took the goddess' hand from her shoulder and held it. "Thank you Tsunami. Your words.. I feel better for having spoken to you, even if nothing I came to say got said the way I planned."  
  
"Often those things which we do not plan are the course meant for us to take, and lead to greater happiness than could the well charted path."  
  
"Even you?"  
  
Tsunami smiled. "Even me, Aeka. I am not omniscient all the time."  
  
Aeka looked down and asked quietly, "How can I speak with father? I dread that conversation more than I feared this and more than I fear the answers I may get from my brother. What if he isn't sorry for what he did? What if he tells me it was right? What if he tries to do it again?"  
  
"Your father is a wise man Aeka, he would not be ruler otherwise. You know he was not born to the throne, and he could not have held it were he not compassionate and just. Think of his actions on Earth. Would an inherently cruel man have set Seriyou as a challenge for Tenchi, knowing of the powers he possessed?"  
  
Aeka had never really considered why her father did that. She had simply assumed that Seriyou was convenient so Azusa used him for his challenge, but as emperor there was no reason for him to even pose such a challenge. He should simply have either given them leave to stay on Earth or demanded they return to Jurai. Aeka and Sasami would have protested the latter, but would have followed his order. No Jurain would defy Azusa's command, to do so would simply be unthinkably wrong.. nearly as bad as blaspheming Tsunami within the Inner Chamber. No, Aeka realized, her father had known Tenchi would win, one way or another, and set the challenge to save face. He did not want to back down from his wish for them to join him aboard the Minawematiro, but he did not wish to have them hating him for dragging them away from their happiness either.  
  
Aeka sighed, looking down at the featureless path upon which she stood. She did not want to think well of her father right now. Aeka wanted only to remember what he had done to her and use it to give herself the strength to do what she felt must be done, but she could not seem to help remembering how much more often he was kind than cruel. She knew that what he had done was a consequence of the lessons instilled in him, but that made it no less an atrocity. She wanted to be angry with him, not feel pity for him.  
  
"What do I say to him?" Aeka asked desperately, "How can I tell him, the emperor of Jurai, that he was wrong for doing what is prescribed by Jurain custom?"  
  
"Do you remember what I told you before Aeka?"  
  
Aeka frowned thoughtfully. "That you can't tell me what to do, because I'll do something else?"  
  
"That's it."  
  
Aeka sighed. "Then I will go to my brother next."  
  
"Fare well, Aeka."  
  
"Thank you, Tsunami."  
  
  
"You lied," Sasami accused, a ghostly image of the young woman stepping from the trunk of Tsunami's tree to confront the goddess.  
  
"I did not lie, Sasami," Tsunami countered, "Every word I spoke was true."  
  
"You know our sister gave Yousho his visions. And you don't know anything about what happened after Aeka went to our sister's realm."  
  
"I know nothing of the sort, Sasami, and if Aeka wishes to believe my hand guided her actions in that place it will do her no harm."  
  
"But there's a big hole there about Yousho. That only happens when it's Tokimi. Or.. or the Other."  
  
Tsunami frowned. "I have told you not to speak of her. You are mortal yet and may overstep the laws."  
  
Sasami sighed. "I'm sorry. But you should have told her."  
  
"If I told Aeka that our sister attempted to lead Ryouko to Tenchi she would hate her. She still harbors love for him as a woman for a man and though she would not realize it at first, hate would grow in her heart for Tokimi."  
  
"You don't think she already hates her, for what she did?"  
  
"Aeka knows, somehow, that much of the slave's actions were undirected by our sister, and that those which were had reason behind them. She does not know of her own knowledge, but she knows. The knowledge that those visions were possibly created by our sister would solidify Tokimi as an object of scorn for Aeka. Now her anger is focused on the dead slave and our sister remains an abstraction."  
  
"It just doesn't seem right." Sasami sighed. "I know our sister didn't mean to hurt my sister, but..."  
  
"Tokimi did not mean anything one way or another Sasami. She did as was required, just as I did with you and as I have done for millennia. And as I did in withholding information from Aeka."  
  
"But what good is being able to know everything if we can't tell anybody?"  
  
Tsunami sighed, this was the hardest part of assimilating with Sasami.. convincing her that things she would not understand until after the process was complete were, in fact, beyond her understanding. "You know what may happen between our sister and Aeka and you know that our sister's actions have been to facilitate that. Sometimes the affairs of the cosmos require things which seem wrong to mortal eyes. Would you have me tell Washuu and Ryouko the whole of the truth as well?"  
  
Sasami bit her lip and looked away. Finally she sighed and said, "No.. I guess not. But that all turned out okay, I mean Ryouko is Washuu's daughter again and she's in love with Tenchi. If everything hadn't happened like it did neither of them would have been happy."  
  
"You understand that because you can see my memories, Sasami," Tsunami said gently, "Just as I knew that when I took my actions thousands of years ago. But if I were to tell them now they would not understand, and they are already happy. Think how much worse it would be if I told Aeka now, when she still grieves."  
  
Sasami nodded sadly. "I guess you're right."  
  
"Go back to your friends Sasami. You are not ready to split your attention this way for so long, even this close to me. And I must attend to matters among the worlds."  
  
* * *  
  
"Kiyone?" Mihoshi asked from within the cell, "I.. I can't find my shoes..."  
  
Kiyone turned to see Mihoshi on her hands and knees feeling around under her bunk, her shoes sitting all of a half meter to her right. Kiyone sighed and went back into the cell, retrieving Mihoshi's shoes and guiding her up to sit on the bunk while she helped her put them on. As she stood she realized Mihoshi had buttoned her shirt crookedly as well.  
  
Kiyone tried to keep herself from saying anything. She knew how hard a time Mihoshi was having since her sudden onset of blindness and could hardly blame her partner for having trouble with her clothes. Kiyone could not imagine how she would be able to function without being able to see, and did not really think she could do any better than Mihoshi was.  
  
"Wait," Kiyone said as Mihoshi started to stand, "You've got your shirt buttoned all crooked. No, just sit, I'll do it."  
  
"Thanks Kiyone," Mihoshi said quietly while the green-haired woman unbuttoned her shirt and started re-buttoning it. "I don't know what I'd do if you weren't my partner."  
  
"I'm more than your partner, Mihoshi..."  
  
*What did I just say?* Kiyone thought in a mild panic.   
  
"What do you mean Kiyone?"  
  
"I.. I.. I'm your friend, right Mihoshi?"  
  
"Oh," Mihoshi smiled, "Of course you are Kiyone." Kiyone finished the last button of Mihoshi's shirt just as the blond threw her arms around her. "I love you Kiyone!"  
  
Kiyone blinked, her arms frozen at her sides. "W..wuh..wuh..."  
  
"You're my best friend," Mihoshi explained, releasing her from the hug, "Since you became my partner it's like.. like I have a sister I guess."  
  
"Oh..." Kiyone felt as though her heart had just shattered, but tried desperately to convince herself she did not. "I... You're my best friend too, Mihoshi."   
  
She could not repeat the blonde's sentiments. She desperately tried to convince herself otherwise, but she knew if she said it there would be no turning back. She could not tell Mihoshi she loved her and not mean it in the way she wanted so badly to believe she did not.  
  
"Come on partner," Kiyone said, trying to make herself sound cheerful, "Let's get out of this hole."  
  
* * *  
  
"Alright Kittan," Takima growled into the hovering comm display, "What the hell are you University people trying to pull? There's nothing out there but a rogue star!"  
  
"Captain Takima, please, calm down." This time the voice was female, a young woman wearing a uniform similar to Kittan's gently pushed the jittery under-professor out of the way and moved to the center of the screen. "We did not want to transmit any specific information about the Artifact over long-range subspace.. even on a secure band. But it Is there. Please, adjust your sensors to these parameters."  
  
Takima turned to the officer manning the sensor array controls and nodded.  
  
"We have confirmation captain," the Jurain officer said a moment later, "It's there, but these sensor settings are insane. They have us looking at distortions in the cosmic background. It's like those crystals are just.. I don't know, some kind of spatial distortions."  
  
"You have good men captain," the female University person said after hearing the analysis, "That's exactly what they are."  
  
"But if they're just spatial anomalies, why are we out here? I'm sure it's a fascinating phenomenon, but distortion patterns are hardly artifacts."  
  
The female professor sighed and pinched the bridge of her nose. "It's hard to explain Captain, but they Are an Artifact. We're convinced that they were not always spatial distortions. We think they were physical objects of some sort that were somehow.. I don't know how to explain it without going over your head sir. Imagine if you took an object and removed every physical property except mass. That's what you would give you those crystals."  
  
Takima frowned. He liked to think he was an intelligent man, and that made dealing with University people even worse. They had all spent most of their lives, sometimes thousands of years, studying instead of getting real jobs, so even an intelligent man was left floundering half the time. Finally he hit upon something he understood which seemed to apply here.  
  
"You mean like the transfer to subspace?" Takima asked, "We had a fairly detailed course plan on subspace physics at Fleet academy, and if I remember correctly objects are stripped of everything except their locational parameters when they make the jump."  
  
The professor nodded, "Yes captain, something like that. But these things are still in normal space, and until now we didn't think something like that was possible. And even stranger they seem to exist simultaneously in subspace. There are distortion patterns in the subspace overlay for this sector of real-space that correspond exactly to the location and velocity of the Artifact."  
  
"Alright professor..."  
  
"Tatoraki, sir. Tatoraki Atiena."  
  
"Alright professor Tatoraki. I'm not qualified to deal with this sort of thing, I'm calling in the planetary confinement team and we'll let them make the decisions."  
  
Professor Tatoraki nodded. "Yes sir, that's all we could ask."  
  
  
Atiena cut the comm channel and sighed in frustration. She hated dealing with Fleet people, they all assumed that just because a person chose to devote their life to study they were somehow less important that people with 'real' jobs. Like going around blowing things up had ever helped anyone.  
  
"And you," Atiena said, rounding on Kittan, "Jumpy as a startled Timpasian. What kind of opinion do you think Fleet is going to get if we act like we should be groveling at their feet for help?"  
  
"Sorry professor," Kittan grinned weakly at her, "I'm just no good at talking to them. I'm always afraid they're going to start barking orders at me or something."  
  
Atiena shook her head sadly and turned away from under-professor Kittan, surveying the interior of the USV Corona. They were not a big ship by any means, this one room composed nearly half the interior volume not used by their propulsion system and subspace drive. Atiena crossed the ten meter chamber to where under-professor Rik'kash was tapping away diligently at a console.  
  
"How's it going Rik'?" Atiena leaned over the under-professor's shoulder and peered at the display floating over his console, "Any luck on the defense mechanism?"  
  
"No, professssor." Rik'kash was a Serga, a race of humanoids created, apparently by Jurains, some two hundred thousand years ago. No mention of the event existed in Jurain records, but Serga legends indicated it. They had normally proportioned bodies for humanoids and basically human faces, but were covered in minute scales and had a distinct hiss to their speech due to the reptilian nature of their vocal apparatus. "It isss mossst confounding, professsor," Rik'kash continued, "There appearsss no devisse to control thisss phenomenon, but it isss clearly obsservable."  
  
The phenomenon Rik'kash referred to was the fact that nothing, absolutely nothing, entered the vicinity of the crystal structure. Normally interstellar derbies would drift into a system and get caught in the sun's gravity well, eventually either spiraling back out of the system, colliding with a planetoid, or being pulled into the star itself. But a survey of this system showed absolutely nothing besides the crystalline spatial deformations.   
  
They had performed a few tests to see why, exactly, there was no foreign matter in the system. Essentially they consisted of flying out beyond the edge of the system and firing a probe back in toward the star. Perhaps not the most glamorous science, but Corona was not equipped for temporal mapping or trans-spatial diffraction pattern reading, so it was down to lobbing things at the crystals to see what happened.  
  
What happened was that the objects never arrived. The first probe was fired toward the edge of the system where the largest crystals were, some the size of small moons, in the hopes that an impact would not damage the Artifact. It veered suddenly off course, all the while reporting that it was still moving in a straight line relative to the ship. The second probe they tried dropping down toward the plane of the ecliptic rather than coming in level. That one floated straight on down until it was within four hundred thousand kilometers of the upper edge of the nearest crystal, then simply vanished. A while later it re-appeared on the opposite side of the ecliptic plane moving at escape velocity for the star and with the onboard computer insisting that, despite all evidence to the contrary, the time between its disappearance and re-appearance had not taken place and that it was moving at approximately half the velocity it actually was.  
  
The last probe was more worrying. That one they had sent straight into the heart of the crystal field with a subspace gate generator aboard. It triggered just beyond the point the second probe had vanished, popping into subspace and continuing its approach. Spatial distances were skewed in subspace and they hoped to move it in close, then yank it back out into realspace to see what would happen, but long before the probe's subspace pattern was anywhere near interfaced with the nearest crystal the probe vanished without so much as a subspace ripple. That was two days ago, it still had not reappeared.  
  
* * *  
  
"Father."  
  
Azusa did not turn at the greeting. He stood on a small balcony overlooking the river Deori where it wound beneath the Four Bridges. He could not remember if this was a real balcony, or if the scene upon which he gazed was merely simulation. Azusa supposed it did not particularly matter anyway, all the simulated outside views within the palace were as accurate as the viewer wished them to be.  
  
"Yousho," Azusa said, leaning on the balcony rail to look down. He was not wearing his robes of office, only a simple Nia in purple and black.  
  
"Will you not look at me father?"  
  
Azusa shut his eyes and gripped the rail harder. "I will look upon my son when he returns to me," Azusa said quietly, his voice level, "I have no interest in elderly Earth men."  
  
Azusa heard the old man sigh and the whisper of cloth as he turned.  
  
"I will see you tonight at the evening meal father."  
  
Azusa waited until he heard the closing of a door before breathing again. His exhalation came out in a ragged gust and he sagged against the railing. Yousho had spoken the promise in his true voice, not the repulsive one he affected for his disguise, and it was all Azusa could do to keep from spinning around to see if his son had finally returned to him. That Yousho would have thrown off his mask and come to rejoin his family was too much to hope for and Azusa had lived far too long to allow unfounded hope into his heart.  
  
  
"Toka, Puer, attend me." Azusa turned from the door without waiting for the guardians' response. He wore Suji, a light official robe pulled over the Nia to signify he was about matters important to the throne, and the metal ornaments at his breast ticked lightly against one another as he sat.   
  
The Guardians shut the door behind them and bowed upon reaching the edge of the floor mat upon which the furniture of Azusa's interview room sat. They were his personal bodyguard and had served in that capacity for nearly six hundred years, they could have sat without fear of reprimand, but Toka and Puer were far too professional in their duties to allow any such breach of protocol.  
  
"How many of our guests have accepted my request to join me for dinner this evening?"  
  
Toka, the older of the two, looked to Puer. They gazed into one another's eyes for a long moment before Puer turned his attention back to the emperor.  
  
"Minos Sasami, Masaki Katsuhito, Hakubi Washuu, Hakubi Ryou-ohki, Hakubi Ryouko, and Nashim Etae have replied to your summons."  
  
Azusa frowned. "Nashim Etae?" Azusa asked, his voice touched by disbelief and annoyance, "You speak of Katsuhito's grandson?"  
  
Puer glanced nervously at Toka who replied in his stead, "Yes my lord. We apologize if we have caused offense, we are unsure of the Nashim's standing at court and sought to avoid disrespect. It is by this designation that the bodyguard refer to the Nashim until such time as we are informed of his standing."  
  
Azusa's frown grew no less intense with the explanation. "You call him Treeborn. This is no part of respect for one unknown to the bodyguard."  
  
"I.." Toka began, Puer picking up when he trailed off helplessly. "We have heard rumor that the Nashim is one of the Treeborn, lord. We meant no disrespect in our nomenclature and will cease to refer to him as such if we are incorrect."  
  
Azusa stood and paced across the room, hands folded behind his back. He stopped near the wall and looked up at a painting which hung there. It depicted a tree in the midst of a rainstorm, two men and a woman clustered about its trunk.  
  
"You may go," Azusa commanded, "The crown will make no proclamation of his standing at this time."  
  
The guardians bowed, tapping their chests before turning to rise and walk out of the room.  
  
When they were gone Azusa reached out to delicately touch the plaque set into the wooden frame of the painting, running his finger across the etched characters there. "Nashim Etae," he whispered to himself, "The treeborn prince... What did I begin by allowing them to stay on Earth?"  
  
* * *  
  
"Well," Ai asked, holding her arms up and half-turning to give Mataeo a view of her profile. She was wearing a sort of long shirt with four unobtrusive pockets and a pair of pants that were cut to accentuate the curve of a woman's leg. Around her waist was a thin belt of some rough fibrous material traced with a weaving pattern in silver to match the similar pattern around the wrist of the right sleeve of her shirt. The top was a deep red and the pants a rich forest green. "What do you think? Is it me?"  
  
Mataeo looked at his girlfriend appraisingly for a moment before saying, "Definitely, though I think you need to do something with your hair. Everybody else I've seen wearing one of those has had their hair back."  
  
"It's called a Nia," Ai explained, stepping back into the changing booth at the rear of the little shop in which she had found her new apparel. "Have you found anything you like yet? Maybe we can find a hair salon after we're done here."  
  
Mataeo rolled his eyes and went back to searching the racks. He knew what colors he liked, and with these nia things the only real difference seemed to be the primary color and the pattern around the wrist; and the wrist part never seemed to be exactly the same between any two shirts. But he was not entirely sure which were the men's and which the women's. There were signs that he assumed would give such helpful information, along with things like sizes, but they were not in any language he recognized.   
  
Finally, just as Ai was reemerging from the booth, once more in her own clothing, he found something that looked appealing. Not a nia, but similar. It had short sleeves and the pants hanging with it had pockets, the lack of which he disliked in the nia. There was a sort of round metal button on the left breast of the shirt and the pants, dark grey otherwise, had a wide blue stripe down the left leg.   
  
"How about this?" Mataeo asked, holding it up to Ai, "It looks like it's my size."  
  
Ai flushed and pushed it down from where he held it up near his shoulder, looking around to see if anyone had seen. They were the only customers in this part of the store.   
  
"You don't want that one," Ai said quietly, putting it back on the rack and guiding Mataeo an aisle over, "That was the uniform for a man petitioning to become a guardian. Here, this is the same color, how about one of these?"  
  
Mataeo took the proffered clothes and headed for the changing booth. Shopping for clothing was not exactly his idea of fun, even if the shopping was being done on an alien world, and Mataeo just wanted to get it over with.   
  
"I still can't believe you borrowed money from Ryouko's mother," Mataeo said through the stall door, struggling with the unfamiliar clothes.  
  
"I didn't borrow it," Ai replied absently, looking through a rack of long dresses, "She gave it to me. She said it was only fair after us having to come here. I tried to tell her I couldn't accept it, but she wouldn't listen."  
  
"Well," Mataeo said, pushing the door open and tugging at his new pants in an attempt to get them to hang correctly, "We're paying her back whenever we get back to Earth. If we can figure out how much Jurain money is worth in yen."  
  
Ai draped the dress she was examining over one arm and tried to hide her grin as she looked at Mataeo. "You.. you've got them on backwards."   
  
Ai tried to keep from laughing as Mataeo struggled in vain with his pants and then leaned his head around his shoulder, turning in a circle while trying to see the back to figure out how it differed from the front.  
  
Hanging the dress back on its rack Ai went to her confused lover and stopped his circling. "Here, look," she tugged the edge of his pantleg facing forward, "See how this side has a stitch around the waist? That's the back."  
  
Mataeo sighed. "Maybe I should just go naked."   
  
He had seen a few Jurains doing so, apparently public nudity was less stigmatized on a world that existed in perpetual spring. Mataeo saw Ai's expression and realized she must have noticed him noticing the Jurains. "Or maybe I should go put these on the right way around?"  
  
Ai nodded sternly, pushing him toward the changing booth. "When you're done we'll go find somewhere to eat before we look for the salon."  
  
  
Mataeo listened while Ai exchanged some rapid-fire Jurain with the store employee. He had picked up a few words of the language with Ai's help, but did not hear any of them in the exchange. It seemed like a fairly easy language to learn once you got around the fact that apparently a whole sentence could change its meaning based on whether the person talking was of a higher or lower social station than the listener, but he had not had time so far to learn more than "hello," "goodbye," "thank you," and "where is the bathroom please?"  
  
Soon enough the transaction was complete, though Mataeo was unsure if the Ai's dialogue with the employee was a part of it or only idle conversation. Ai said it was all a part of shopping on Jurai, but could not seem to explain if it was actually an integral part of the purchase itself. In any case, money changed hands. Well, changed accounts through the device of a complicated little cylinder Washuu had provided Ai for the purpose anyway. Jurains had not had physical currency since before Earthlings first began using beads and shells for the purpose.   
  
"Come on Mat," Ai said, handing him their packages and stepping through the shop's doorway, "Let's go get something to eat."  
  
Stepping into the quiet rush of Jurai's Great City Mataeo was amazed again at the beauty of this world. Jurains had no surface transportation, relying on an underground system something like subways on Earth and a more expensive, per trip, network of teleportation pads. Mataeo and Ai, wanting to see the sights of the city, had used neither so far. Instead they walked the wide, grass-paved streets of the city amidst the strangely subdued crowds.   
  
Mataeo, having grown up in Hong Kong, expected city streets to be busy and loud, but while the Great City was certainly busy it was almost eerily quiet. Ai said it was on purpose, some sort of acoustic effect produced by the atmosphere that subdued loud noises. Whatever the cause, the effect was magical. Walking through the quiet crowds of beings in exotic clothing, many of them clearly not human, was like stepping into a fantasy world. The green streets, their grass somehow remaining untrampled despite the traffic, and Jurai's flowing architectural style served only to heighten the surrealness of the scene.  
  
Mataeo let Ai guide him down one road after another, though really she did not have any more idea where they were going than he did, while he looked up in awe at the strange and beautiful buildings surrounding them. Jurain architecture was a thing of flowing curves and the careful combination of natural elements, not the world of sleek metals and glowing plastics Mataeo had always vaguely assumed an advanced, alien world would be. In fact, there was far less metal and glass evident within the Great City than on any street in Tokyo or Hong Kong. Most buildings were a combination of stone and living plants, trees and vines in varying thicknesses used to decorate or, sometimes, support structures in a staggering array of stone textures. One building in particular Mataeo thought he would carry the image of with for the rest of his life. It was a massive, towering structure of sleek crystalline spikes and orbs hung within a network of wooden tendrils, the thinnest of them easily twenty meters across. And, rising majestically in the center of the structure, a twisting triple helix of water lit with dancing motes of light. Mataeo and Ai had stood watching the lights dance through the water, flowing through its curves with no visible means of support, for long minutes before asking a passing street vendor what it housed.   
  
Mataeo had discovered that Ai's knowledge of Jurai, while considerably larger than his own, was not encyclopedic. The trees told her much of the world's history and taught her the language, but they seemed to have difficulty differentiating periods of time and could give her few specific details about the current state of affairs on Jurai, much less the layout of the city. So much of their time was spent wandering aimlessly, hoping to stumble across the places they wanted to visit and wondering at the strange buildings and stranger businesses housed within.   
  
The vendor explained kindly that the structure was the home of Jurai's oldest and most respected architectural firm, and somehow that seemed precisely correct to Mataeo. He had always wondered at the fact that architects on Earth seemed to work in the most drab buildings, and that the people responsible for the beautiful vista surrounding them should be housed in such a magical structure seemed right. The vendor also mentioned that they should return to see the building, referred to as Shunimahinae, though whether that was the name of the building, the agency, or something else entirely Mataeo was unsure, at night when the lights would be refracted by the water and the artificial crystals in what she assured was a dazzling display.  
  
  
"Okay," Mataeo said unsurely, "I guess that sounds good."  
  
Ai frowned and looked at the menu again. "I didn't really think about the fact that none of the food here would be like food on Earth. Back at the palace the cooks knew how to make Japanese food..."  
  
Mataeo nodded, he had failed to consider the fact they might have trouble finding something edible as well.  
  
The two knelt at a low table in a subtly lit restaurant, the ambiance almost eerily Japanese while remaining alien enough to be clearly not Earth. Ai explained that the Japanese touches they had been noticing in Jurain culture, like the restaurant in which they now contemplated strange foods, were thanks to Queen Funaho's influence. The emperor's first wife was born and raised on Earth in ancient Japan, and though the people were mistrustful of her when first Azusa took the throne with an alien wife, they quickly took to imitating her strange ways in their own daily lives. Now, nearly two thousand years later, things like kimonos and chopsticks were firmly entrenched in the culture of the galaxy's greatest empire.  
  
Ai summoned a waiter and placed their orders, meatless dishes that her extremely limited knowledge of Jurain culinary traditions said would be something like rice with steamed vegetables.   
  
"So where are we going after lunch?" Mataeo asked, flipping idly through the menu. Jurain restaurants left them at the table rather than taking them away once the customer had placed their order. He could not read a word of it, of course, but the flowing script of Jurai was easy to appreciate even without knowledge of the content.  
  
"I thought we'd find somewhere to get my hair done," Ai said, running her fingers through her dark tresses, "And then maybe go back to the palace to see if we can find everybody for dinner. We haven't all been in one place since we got here and we should talk to Tenchi about going back home."  
  
"Home?" Mataeo asked, raising his eyebrows, "I thought you liked it here? You want to leave already?"  
  
"Oh, no," Ai shook her head, "I love it here.. everything's so.. magical, I guess, but we can't stay forever. If we're not back in a couple of weeks the bills will all be late."  
  
Mataeo chuckled. "Here we are, eating in an alien restaurant on a planet so far away from Earth you can't even see it's star in the sky, and you're worried about the power bill."  
  
"Well, that stuff is important," Ai said defensively, "I mean, Jurai is great.. but we can't live here. Can we?"  
  
Mataeo shrugged uncomfortably. Since hearing Ai's story about her heritage, told to her the night before by the being known as Tsunami, he had been dreading this question. He could see in her eyes when she took in the sight of the City that she wanted to stay here, possibly forever, and with Jurain blood in her veins he thought she might be right to want it. But could he stay with her? He had no Jurain ancestors, he was just a simple Japanese boy raised in China who had no greater aspirations than to earn his degree in engineering and go to work at the company where his father had worked since soon after he was born.   
  
"I.. I don't know Ai. I mean, I guess you could.. but I can't even speak Jurain. What could I do here? You're part of their royal family, you can probably live at the palace.. it's big enough anyway, but what would I do? You've seen the stuff they have here, their science must make ours look like knocking rocks together to make sparks. I don't see how I Can do anything but go back to Earth and college." Mataeo paused, toying with the menu and looking down, away from Ai's face. "But if you.. if you wanted to, you know.. if you stayed and didn't want.. I wouldn't want to hold you back.. I would.. I mean..."  
  
"Mat?" Ai took his hand away from the menu and held it until he looked up at her. "If you're thinking I'd stay here while you went back to Earth, you'd better just stop thinking it right now," Ai's voice was soft but full of the iron determination Mataeo so admired in her. "You know how long I've waited for you to ask me to move in with you? And now that you've finally done it you think I'm just going to drop you for a connection to Jurai through an ancestor I didn't even know I had until this morning? You'd better open your eyes a little wider, Onosami Mataeo, I love you and if I stay here it's going to be With you. Got that?"  
  
Mataeo nodded slowly, squeezing her hand. "I.. I guess so Ai, but everything's been happening so fast lately. I don't even know what to think anymore, nobody's who I thought they were and nothing's like I thought it was. You're.. you're some kind of alien princess or something and I'm just a plain old Earth boy. I was afraid you might not want me as much when you knew you could have all this." Mataeo waved widely, a gesture meant to encompass all the Thousand Suns, what Ai said most people referred to the Jurain Empire as.  
  
"I don't want all this," Ai said, repeating his gesture with a wry grin, "If I can't have it with you. You're more important to me than Jurai could ever be, even as amazing as it all is. I'd rather live on Earth all my life and never hear the trees or see the City again to be with you than live here a day without you."  
  
Mataeo smiled and blushed. "I love you too Ai. But what are we going to do? Could we really just go back home and forget about all this? Tenchi and Ryouko live basically like normal people despite everything they've been through.. but could we do that too?"  
  
Ai sighed and looked out one of the restaurant's windows at the strange crowd flowing past. "I don't know Mat. I always thought Ryouko was a little bit odd, but now that I know what she's been though it's amazing how normal she was. I don't think I could live through all the things she did and still be sane. And Tenchi... God, I can't imagine what it must have been like for him. I mean, I found out a really distant ancestor of mine was from Jurai and I feel different.. he found out his grandfather, the guy he spent summers with, was over a thousand years old, from another planet, and had a bunch of alien women suddenly move into his house..."  
  
Mataeo nodded. Since finding out what it was that made Tenchi Tenchi he had been thinking about all the times when his friend was just another guy and being quietly amazed by the sort of strength it must take to hold up under everything he had been through. Here he had only been observing all the things happening to and around his friends in the past few days and he was thoroughly confused. How would he have reacted if it had been him who discovered he was related to the ruling family of a planet-spanning empire?  
  
"I guess you're right," Mataeo said at last, "We should talk to them about going back. Maybe Tenchi and Ryouko can tell us how to deal with all this. They've been doing it for years afterall."  
  
Ai started to agree, then turned when conversation in the room suddenly died after a commotion near the door. There were two men dressed in the uniforms Mataeo had come to recognize as belonging to the Guardians of the Jurain royal family, a sort of private army separate from their Fleet as far as he understood it. Normally they seemed to always appear in pairs, one young-looking man and one old, a coincidence that Ai could not explain. Either the trees had not told her, or it was one of the thousands of things they had shown her which had simply not stuck in her memory. This time it was a pair as normal, but accompanied by a woman dressed in a similar uniform. It was not exactly the same, the colors were darker and she wore a skirt rather than pants. And where the Guardians always carried staves with an energy sword hilt like Tenchi's strapped at their waist, this woman had no weapons about her except a thin wooden sword draped across her back.   
  
The trio spoke briefly with the hostess of the restaurant, their eyes swinging around the room as if searching for something. When their collective gaze alighted on Mataeo and Ai, who were looking on curiously like the rest of the patrons, they pushed past the restaurant staff and came toward them.  
  
Mataeo looked nervously at Ai, who returned the glance.  
  
"Did we do something wrong?" He asked, watching the three stern-faced figures approach.  
  
"I.. I don't think we did..."  
  
"Onosami Mataeo, Fujihara Ai," said the older of the Guardians, "He kippa shotep masolla. Mamonla timnaewai photep."  
  
Ai frowned and translated, "He says we have to come with them because we..." Ai paused and turned back to the Guardians. "Masolla timnaewai? Monla toda'aoi shikae shetep, nedor?"  
  
The guardians looked vaguely uncomfortable but replied at some length in Jurain. Eventually Ai turned back to Mataeo and said, "Apparently we weren't supposed to leave the palace because we're friends of the royal family."  
  
"What?" Mataeo asked in disbelief, "But that doesn't make any sense."  
  
"They said that because we're friends of the crown we have to have a status assigned to us so that they'll know how to treat us. There hasn't been a proclamation announcing our positions within the court yet, so they don't know how important we are officially. If we're Really important we won't be allowed out of the palace at all, and we'll have to have an escort while we're there. Apparently there's something like a political civil war going on and they have to be careful with anybody who's connected to the throne."  
  
"So are we in trouble?" Mataeo asked nervously, looking up at the three imposing figures. "Are they going to arrest us or something?"  
  
"No," Ai said slowly, "I don't think so. They're just worried because we were outside the palace without protection. There was some kind of problem with some of the guards at the palace and that's why we got out without anyone saying anything. Now they just want us to come back with them so nobody gets in any trouble."  
  
"Oh," Mataeo sighed in relief. The Guardians looked about like they always did.. stern and vaguely upset, but the woman with them was positively frightening. She glared around the restaurant constantly like she was expecting everyone there to try to kill someone. "Well, I guess that's okay.. can we eat first?"  
  
Ai asked the Guardians and translated their reply for her lover. "No, they say that even if we're allowed out of the palace we should only eat at approved restaurants. Otherwise there's too much danger of.. not poisoning exactly, the word means that, but it means a lot of things about technology I don't understand too. There's a lot of stuff you can do to someone's food, I guess. But they said we can eat at the palace."  
  
"Time this for being not," the heretofore silent woman said in heavily accented Japanese, her brow furrowed in what was either anger or concentration, Mataeo could not decide. "You us are coming with now. The palace to we must take you, consequences bad to be in happenings other than this."  
  
The Guardians turned toward her, looks of shock painted bold across their faces. One began to protest loudly in Jurain, but she touched him lightly on the chest with two fingers and he fell silent immediately. "Language of them to be speaking shall we, in their presence we are. Better at it than I am you are, speaking it to be you will. And propriety.. matters import of direness being shall be to override this."  
  
Mataeo looked questioningly at Ai. They had found that most of the Guardians could speak Japanese, though they were surprisingly reluctant to do it, and when they did it was always clear and nearly unaccented. This woman's Jurain heritage was very clear in her voice and Mataeo was having a hard time picking out the meaning in her broken Japanese. Ai shook her head with a tiny motion, she did not know what was going on either.   
  
"Okay, okay," Mat said cautiously, "We don't want any trouble. We'll come back with you now, right Ai?"  
  
Ai nodded and rose to her feet as he stood.  
  
  
"Who.. who are you?" Mataeo asked of the woman after they had left the restaurant, "I mean, no offense or anything. But you're not a Guardian, right? I'm not Jurain, so I don't know much about how all this stuff works. Are you some kind of special missing persons officer or something?"  
  
The woman look startled at being addressed, and the Guardians pace faltered for a moment.  
  
"Identify me of being not of importance to you, respectfully addressed."  
  
Mataeo frowned, did she mean she was addressing him respectfully or that he should show more respect for her? Whatever she meant, she quickened her pace and moved to walk in front of the Guardians, putting them between herself and the trio's two charges.  
  
It was a long walk and Mataeo held Ai's hand, their purchases of the morning tucked under one arm as he tried to split his attention between the amazing buildings between which they walked and the equally amazing beings forming the crowd around them, leaving a small sphere of empty space where the woman and the two Guardians walked. He sighed, thinking that he would probably not get to see the Shunimahinae by night now, at least not until all this pronouncement business was cleared up.  
  
* * *  
  
Aeka summoned her courage and knocked at the door of the chamber Katsuhito was using. His chambers as crown prince were still maintained, but he remained Masaki Katsuhito in the eyes of the court and so was treated as no more than a guest of the throne.   
  
"Gr-" Aeka cut herself off before the word was begun, she wanted to deal with him as Yousho, not as Tenchi's grandfather. "Y-" Aeka stopped again, this time finding the word would not come to her lips. She sighed heavily and knocked again, calling, "Katsuhito? May I speak with you?"  
  
Aeka waited for what seemed hours, but was probably no more than thirty seconds, before knocking again. After once more receiving no response she sighed and turned away, her shoulders sagging and gaze sinking to the floor as the courage she had summoned for the interview faded. He was not there. She had not counted on that possibility and now wondered if she would be able to find the strength to do this again.  
  
*There is nothing for it then,* Aeka thought as she moved off down the corridor, *I will have to speak with father next.*  
  
  
"Aeka?"  
  
Aeka paused at the door to her father's reception room. There his Guardians, Puer and Toka, would be waiting to announce his visitors, should they be deemed worthy of an audience with the emperor.  
  
"Mother?" Aeka turned to see Misaki standing a little way up the hall, hands folded before her.  
  
"So today's the day then?" Misaki asked.  
  
"The day mother?" Aeka asked, quirking her eyebrows, "What day?"  
  
Misaki sighed and looked away from her daughter's eyes. "The day you will speak with your father about.. about the beatings."  
  
Aeka's eyes widened. So her mother knew as well? But of course she would.. she was of the House Jurai by the time of her Second Change, she would have received the same lessons, basically, as her father and brother.  
  
"Yes mother."  
  
Misaki looked up at her then and there was a confused welter of emotions battling for control of her face. "My little Aeka... I don't want to lose you Aeka. I think I can guess your plans, and I wish I could talk you out of them."  
  
"You won't try?" Aeka asked, surprised. She had expected breaking the news of her self-imposed exile to her mother to be more difficult than to Funaho, possibly even more so than to her father.  
  
"Did you know that my parents did not want me to marry your father, Aeka?" Misaki asked, suddenly changing the subject. Aeka was used to her mother's occasional digressions away from reality and tried to take this one in stride.  
  
"No mother," she answered truthfully, "Is that true?"  
  
"Yes.. yes, it is." Misaki looked far away, her eyes staring into some unseen distance and her fingers playing idly with the cloth of her robes. "He was not emperor then, not even of a Royal House. My House was not very important, really, or he would never have even been able to meet me. Mother said I was far too young to enter into marriage with a man already taken of a wife. You know such things normally wait until after the fourth century at least.. and I was only a little older than you. But Azusa was so handsome and dashing, and Funaho was a wonderful woman I just knew I could become a happy wife-sister to. So I defied their wishes and we were married. Now, of course, they say they were only trying to lure me to him by forbidding it, but he is emperor now and they could hardly say that my marriage was a mistake, could they?"  
  
Aeka shook her head silently. She had never heard this story before, but wanted to get on to her father before her confidence fled. But Misaki was her mother, and she would not interrupt what seemed an important story to her.  
  
"Your father was a kind, wonderful man Aeka. I think that he could have become emperor even had he not.. if he were not what he is. He loved me very much, and he loved Funaho, and when his children came he loved each of you. He has never stopped regretting what happened to.. to Yousho's brother, though he will never say so. A wife can see these things, and your father sometimes talks in his sleep."  
  
"You.. you don't think the teachings are right, mother?" Aeka asked cautiously, wondering if it could be true.  
  
Misaki sighed and squeezed her hands together. "I don't want to talk about that Aeka. But I wanted you to know that your father loves you, before you go talk to him. I know you are angry, and you deserve to be. But please Aeka, remember that he is the emperor. His actions cannot always be his own, and sometimes he must do one thing when he wishes with all his heart to do another."  
  
Aeka frowned. "He is emperor, but he is my father too. The throne should not be an excuse to mistreat his children."  
  
Misaki sighed again and turned away, arms folded beneath her breasts to squeeze her sides. "Your father has had a lot of pain in his life, Aeka. I know you have too, and I wish I could take it all away for you, but I can't do that. But please, if you truly want all the pain to stop, do not take the first step toward your goal by giving your father more than is necessary."  
  
"I will do what I have to, mother."  
  
"I know you will, Aeka," Misaki said quietly, "But I hope when you're done.. if you go away like Yousho did.. I hope I can still be your mommy."  
  
"You'll always be mommy to me," Aeka replied, her voice softening, "Always. No matter what happens."  
  
"That's good," Misaki said as she stated to walk slowly away. Her voice held the strange, distant quality it often took when she was not entirely in focus with the world around her. "That's good honey. And remember when you talk to your daddy, you should only bow halfway, because you're a princess."  
  
Misaki's words drifted back to her daughter, she was nearly down to the turning of the corridor now and Aeka knew she no longer spoke to her. At least, not to the her that was there now. Her mother often slipped into the past, memories becoming temporarily more real than reality, and at such times Aeka could barely stand to be around her. Not out of embarrassment or anything so crass, but because it pained her so to see her mother in that condition. It seemed to happen much more often now than she remembered from before she left in search of Yousho, and Aeka hoped desperately that it had not been her actions which led to it.  
  
Aeka watched Misaki turn the corner before turning back to the door. She took a deep breath and opened it quickly, stepping through to confront the Guardians and, beyond them, her father.  
  
* * *  
  
"Sasami? Can I talk to you a minute?"  
  
Sasami looked up from the dresses she was trying to choose between and nodded happily at Tenchi. "Sure Tenchi, what's up? Don't you like your robes?"  
  
Tenchi looked down at himself before answering. The robes were Sasami's idea. He wore a garment composed of a slightly off-white shirt and loose, charcoal grey pants beneath a long black, purple, and green robe decorated at the wide, angularly cut neck with small metallic buttons, one of which dangled a thin strip of something like paper. Sasami said that it was the traditional robe of a nashim and that it was important to wear formal robes if you were entitled to them when you went to a function like tonight's dinner. Tenchi was not entirely convinced, primarily because he did not think he was really entitled to the amount of respect seemingly attached to the title Sasami had given him. That is, he knew he was entitled by his ancestry, but he had not chosen to pass up the throne.. he simply had not even known there Was a throne to be refused.  
  
Finally he put on a smile and said, "No, they're very nice Sasami. I'm not sure I feel right wearing them, but your tailor is very good. I wanted to talk to you about some other things. Could we sit down?"  
  
Sasami nodded and sat, looking vaguely worried. "Is it.. did Ryouko tell you about Eto?"  
  
Tenchi frowned. "No, what about Eto?"  
  
"Oh.." Sasami looked away and blushed before saying quickly, "Nothing. I just got in a little fight with him, that's all. Nothing important, really."  
  
Tenchi furrowed his brow worriedly and made a mental note to talk to Ryouko later.  
  
"It's not about Eto, no. But I guess it sort of is."  
  
"What do you mean?" Sasami asked, looking at him curiously.  
  
"Well... You said you got in a fight with him and went to talk to Ryouko, right?"  
  
Sasami nodded. "That's okay, isn't it? Ryouko said she didn't mind talking to me..."  
  
"Oh, it's fine," Tenchi assured the young woman. "Ryouko loves talking to you. I just... I wanted you to know I'm here too. If you ever need someone to talk to, I don't want you to think Ryouko's the only one who will listen. You know what I mean?"  
  
Sasami nodded slowly. "I think so, Tenchi. I guess I don't talk to you as much as Ryouko... But sometimes I have to talk to her about.. you know, girl stuff."  
  
Tenchi blushed and rubbed his neck. "Oh, sure. But if it's not about girl stuff, I'm here too, okay? I didn't want you to think I don't care about what happens to you too."  
  
Sasami smiled and gave him a quick hug.  
  
"Trying to put the moves on my husband, Sammy?" Ryouko grinned at the pair from where she stood at the door of Sasami's wardrobe room. Tenchi gasped quietly and stared at her, his eyes riveted and a blush slowly rising to his face.  
  
"Wow... Ryouko..."  
  
"You like?" Ryouko asked, putting her arms up over her head and turning slowly. She wore a long, primarily blue, dress made of some sheer, glossy cloth with a high neckline. A complicated design was cut into the front, from a circle revealing the gem at her neck down across her chest in a flowing floral pattern. Stripes of emerald green swept around her back, ending in down-curving spikes along her legs. The sleeves began tight at her shoulders, billowing out to their ends just below her elbows and were slashed with a satiny black cloth beneath.  
  
"Uh huh..." Tenchi mumbled, unable to compose a response.  
  
"Wow Ryouko," Sasami supplied, "You look really good."  
  
Ryouko swept across the room to admire Tenchi's new robe, murmuring something in his ear that made the fading blush return full strength to his cheeks.   
  
"Does it mean something, Sammy?" Ryouko asked, looking down at herself again. "The seamstress kept saying how lucky I am and how honored I must feel, but I couldn't remember enough Jurain to ask why politely."  
  
Sasami blushed and was a moment in answering. "I.. I hope I didn't do anything bad... I kind of told her to make you the dress for a woman just married into a Royal House. And the black in the sleeves mean you're married to a nashim."  
  
"Really?" Ryouko asked curiously, fingering the soft cloth in her sleeves.  
  
"Sasami," Tenchi said uncomfortably, "You probably shouldn't have done that. We haven't had a ceremony yet or anything, and we wanted to surprise everyone at dinner."  
  
"Oh lighten up Tenchi," Ryouko said with a smile, "You're just upset because you don't think you deserve your robe. I like my dress, and we're going to announce the engagement at dinner anyway."  
  
"I guess," Tenchi sighed, deflated, "But I really don't think I should wear this.. I'm no prince."  
  
"You're all the prince I want," Ryouko whispered in the sultry voice she knew turned Tenchi's knees to butter before kissing his cheek.  
  
Sasami coughed discretely and the couple blushed, moving slightly away from one another to hold hands.  
  
"If you don't wear it my dad won't want to announce you at court," Sasami explained, "And if he doesn't you won't be able to claim any of the stuff members of the House get."  
  
"I don't want any of that though," Tenchi protested, "This place is too much for me and I'm just a guest right now."  
  
Sasami frowned prettily and said, "You might though, one day, and if you get announced as just Tenchi from Earth it'll be really hard." Sasami flashed him a grin and said, "Besides, Ryouko's right.. you look really sexy in it."  
  
Tenchi blushed and Ryouko blustered, "Sasami! It's impolite to listen when people whisper!"  
  
Sasami grinned and replied, "Guess you're rubbing off on me, mommy Ryouko."  
  
Ryouko's mouth snapped shut and a blush to rival Tenchi's consumed her features.  
  
"See how it feels?" Washuu asked, entering the room. She wore a severe black and green dress/robe that Tenchi recognized as the formal uniform of a senior Professor at the Jurain University of Science from some old pictures she had shown him.  
  
Sasami shared a grin with the scientist while Tenchi and Ryouko attempted to sort out their embarrassment.  
  
The mutual trading of compliments had barely begun when yet another guest joined the party. This time it was a tall woman with close-cropped pink hair wearing a uniform that closely resembled that of the Guardians. She had a thin wooden sword across her back and looked around the room with a gaze like daggers.  
  
Tenchi stepped unconsciously between the new arrival and the three women, his hand moving without thought to his hip, but he was unarmed.  
  
The woman's gaze leveled on Tenchi and she stared him directly in the eye for a long beat before bowing deeply.   
  
"Masaki Tenchi," she said, pronouncing the vowels with the stuttering manner of Jurain speech, "Minos Sasami. Your guests recognize I am afraid I am not doing. This woman assume I do to be Hakubi Washuu? And you are ignorant, or wife to this man, by your dress. Ignorant you do not appear, so must you be Ryouko."  
  
"Who are you?" Sasami asked in her most official-sounding princess voice, "What are you doing in my chambers unannounced?"  
  
"By your honor, Vianna am I being. Mother, yours, the queen Misaki, is being sending me to have ascertained whom of guests, yours, will attending dinner being."  
  
"Why did she not send Guardians?" Sasami asked suspiciously, "What is your station? And why do you speak Japanese so badly?"  
  
"Learning it, I am, the slower way. To mother, yours, am being I personal guard."  
  
Sasami frowned and called loudly, "Azaka! Kotori! Attend me!"  
  
The guardians filed quickly into the room from their stations outside. Within her chambers Sasami was allowed freedom of privacy, but they always waited just outside in case she left or needed help.  
  
"Who is this woman?" Sasami demanded. "She claims to be queen Misaki's personal guard."  
  
The Guardians glanced at one another before the younger, Azaka, replied, "This is true, your highness. She is called Vianna and is of your mother's elite guards."  
  
Vianna smiled smugly, vindicated.  
  
"When were women allowed into the Guardians?" Sasami asked, "And where is her other half?"  
  
Tenchi glanced at Ryouko, hoping for an explanation, but she was absorbed by the exchange.  
  
"They are not, highness," the elder guardian responded, "And she has none. Some time after your departure the queen began training very young women as guards. The lady Vianna was her first student."  
  
Sasami's frown remained but she dismissed the Guardians with a wave of her hand before turning back to Vianna.  
  
"If you are truly my mother's messenger, tell her that I and all my guests but Tenchi's grandfather will be attending. I do not know if he will be for I have not seen him today. I have also not seen Aeka, so do not know if she will be in attendance tonight. And please inform her that I wish to speak with her regarding her guard's manners."  
  
Vianna bowed again and replied, "I shall. The one, Masaki Katsuhito, signaled has that will be in attendance shall he. The crown princess, made no announcement she has."  
  
"You may leave," Sasami commanded. A tiny smile touched Vianna's lips and she turned, striding confidently through the door.  
  
"What was That?" Tenchi asked when he was confident she was well away.  
  
Sasami shook her head. "I don't know..."  
  
* * *  
  
Ryouko caught her mother's sleeve, stopping Washuu from leaving the room after Tenchi and Sasami.  
  
Washuu turned back to her daughter and asked, "What is it Ryouko?"  
  
Ryouko bit her lip and looked away, seemingly considering how to ask what she was about to ask. Finally she sighed and asked simply, "Can you open your portal from here to Earth?"  
  
Washuu frowned and shook her head, wondering what was on Ryouko's mind. "No, I can't. The portal gear is in my lab, and the subspace interface has a limited range. I could open it from Mars, probably, but not anywhere outside the inner Sol system. Why? Worried about getting back to Earth? And you know that thing might be waiting back there for us."  
  
Ryouko shook her head and sat in one of the straight-backed chairs scattered around Sasami's dressing room. "No, not exactly. It's just..." Ryouko sighed and shut her eyes for a moment. When she opened them again she had a look of grim determination about her features.  
  
"Okay, look Mom," Ryouko said seriously, "This isn't working. I'm just going to say it right out, and if you laugh at me I swear I won't talk to you for a week."  
  
Washuu raised an eyebrow and nodded.  
  
"When we came through from Earth we didn't stop to get any of our stuff. Tenchi's condoms were in his bag in our tent."  
  
Washuu very carefully kept her face straight. "Oh."  
  
"So can you do anything?"  
  
Washuu frowned, trying to distract herself from amusement at her daughter's predicament by concentrating on the scientific aspects of the problem at hand.  
  
"Well, I can't give you anything if that's what you mean. You already know how your body deals with foreign chemical compounds.. any drug I give you would be ejected through your skin within an hour. I guess I could deactivate your reproductive system, but that could take time..."  
  
Ryouko sighed, trying to adjust to the concept of enforced abstinence.  
  
"Ryouko?" Washuu asked cautiously, taking a seat across from her daughter.  
  
Ryouko looked up, "Yes?"  
  
"You know your chances of getting pregnant with Tenchi are actually slightly lower than a Jurain or Earthling woman. If you just.. went ahead, you probably would be okay."  
  
Ryouko frowned. "Probably isn't good enough."  
  
"Why not?" Washuu asked, her voice low and cautious, the way it always got when she was trying to avoid saying the wrong thing, "Would being a mother be that bad?"  
  
Ryouko looked away and bit her lip. "I'm not ready for that yet. I don't know if I ever will be. I think Tenchi wants a child, but I don't know if I can give it to him. I don't think I'll be a very good mother."  
  
Washuu patted her daughter's knee comfortingly. "You'd be better than I was."  
  
Ryouko tried to snort derisively, but her heart was not in it. "I don't know mom. I mean, what if I screwed it up? If I mess up now it's just me that gets hurt, but what if I had a baby and I did something wrong and it got hurt? Tenchi would never forgive me.. and I don't think I could forgive myself. And what could I teach my daughter? You're a genius.. I'm just a thing from your lab, I'm not even human."  
  
Ryouko gasped when Washuu slapped her, holding one hand to her cheek and looking up at her mother in shock.  
  
"Don't you ever say that again, Ryouko," Washuu warned seriously, "You're ever bit as human as any of the rest of us. Just because you were born in my lab doesn't make you any less human that if I had pushed you out of my body in a hospital. Aeka and Sasami were born in labs too, you know. All Jurains are. What I did with my DNA to make you is no different from what was done to Misaki and the emperor's to make Aeka, only more advanced. Are they not human?"  
  
Ryouko only stared at her, still clutching her reddening cheek.  
  
"Tenchi loves you, Ryouko. You're going to be his wife, that's a very human thing. Sasami looks up to you like a mother, even if you don't want to admit it. I can see it, and I wasn't in Tokyo with you. She was joking when she called you 'mommy Ryouko,' but there was truth there too. Think about it Ryouko, who's been there for her since she had her Change? You. Who's taught her most of what she knows about boys? You. Who showed her how to put on makeup? You. If you're such an awful candidate for motherhood, is Sasami such an awful daughter?"  
  
Ryouko shook her head slowly, her eyes wide.  
  
"Damn right she isn't. You came to me asking for advice on handling the Eto situation, but I couldn't tell you what to do because you'd already done it all. I'll try to find something for you and Tenchi, but I want you to think about why you don't want a child. If you don't want one, that's up to you.. no child should be born in a family where she isn't wanted. But you shouldn't sell yourself short, Ryouko. You might not have made a good mother when you first woke up from the cave, but you aren't the girl you were then. You're a woman now, soon to be a wife, and I'm damn proud of you."  
  
Washuu got up with a swishing of cloth and turned to leave. She paused at the door and turned back to say, "I'm sorry about your cheek." Then she was gone.  
  
* * *  
  
Kiyone straightened her vest and posed in the mirror. She was nervous about dinner tonight, and trying to deal with it by obsessing over her uniform.  
  
Not that was her uniform, really. All her clothes, along with Mihoshi's, were back on Earth and on the sector station near the star Earthlings called Betelgeuse. This uniform was a loaner from the Jurai GP station, borrowed with a pile of other clothes that morning after their release.   
  
Kiyone started to ask Mihoshi how she looked, but stopped herself in time. Her partner was fiddling absently with the hem of her vest and staring blankly at the wall.   
  
They had spent much of the day in the palace hospital having Mihoshi's eyes examined, but the Jurain doctors could not find anything the matter. Whatever was preventing Mihoshi from seeing was psychological, not physical, and the hospital's aura scanning gear could not pick up on the blockage. There were more sensitive instruments at the University and they would be going there at the end of the week to have Mihoshi examined, but until then she was stuck with her blindness.  
  
"I'm scared, Kiyone," Mihoshi said suddenly, looking in the basic direction of her partner.  
  
"What about Mihoshi?" Kiyone asked, moving to sit next to the blonde.  
  
"I've never been to dinner with an emperor before.. and now I'm blind. What if I screw up?"  
  
"You'll do fine Mihoshi," Kiyone assured her, "I'll be there right next to you the whole time. And the cooks and staff know you can't see right now, so they'll make sure your food is easy to eat without being able to look at it."  
  
Mihoshi sighed and tugged lightly at her vest. There were no officers assigned to the Jurain station with quite the generous proportions of Mihoshi, so her borrowed uniform did not quite fit. The rest of her clothes were being altered, but there was not time before dinner to do the complicated job of the dress uniform.  
  
"Kiyone?"  
  
Kiyone looked self-consciously away from the swell of her partner's chest and asked, "Yes?"  
  
"Why did you want to kiss me, Kiyone? Just 'cause I'm cute?"  
  
Kiyone sighed, she had hoped Mihoshi would have forgotten about that by now.  
  
"I don't want to talk about that Mihoshi."  
  
"I know... Only, I don't understand why you wanted to."  
  
Kiyone was silent for long moments. Eventually she said, "I don't know Mihoshi. You.. you're... You're an attractive woman, Mihoshi. And you're my friend. I guess I just got carried away."  
  
"Okay," Mihoshi agreed, "But how come you're my friend?"  
  
Kiyone frowned. "What do you mean Mihoshi?"  
  
"Well," Mihoshi said unsurely, "Why're you so nice to me? Most people just get mad when I mess up and they yell at me and then go away. But you always try to help me, and you're really nice most of the time. And when I'm not messing anything up we have fun together, right?"  
  
"Uh huh..."  
  
"But how come you put up with me? I.. I haven't had a lot of friends, almost not any before I met Tenchi."  
  
Kiyone shrugged, then remembered who she was talking to and said, "I don't know. I guess I haven't had too many friends lately either. You're always yourself, though. Most people just do what people think they should.. you always do what you think is right, even if you do the wrong thing sometimes. It's nice being around someone that you know will say what they mean instead of what you want to hear."  
  
Mihoshi was quiet for long minutes and Kiyone sat silently beside her. When Mihoshi spoke again it startled Kiyone out of another of her endless internal rages over her feelings for her partner.  
  
"Kiyone... If you still want to kiss me, you still can. I.. I've never kissed a girl that I can remember, but if I did once maybe I'd like it."  
  
Kiyone sighed heavily and stood up, facing away from her partner and folding her arms. "Don't talk about that Mihoshi."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"It's not right. Where I come from women only kiss men, unless it's their mother or something. Doing things like that with someone the same sex as you are is wrong.. that's what I was always taught. When I wanted to kiss you, I was wrong. It won't happen again."  
  
"Maybe.." Mihoshi's voice was tiny, like she expected to be reprimanded for her words, "Maybe you should just do what you think is right, even if maybe it's wrong."  
  
Kiyone shook her head and walked to the mirror, checking her uniform again.  
  
"Some things are just wrong, Mihoshi," she explained sadly, "And no matter what, they stay wrong. Being yourself is good, but everybody isn't right all the time."  
  
"Okay Kiyone." Mihoshi sounded unconvinced, but Kiyone did not have to will to explain it anymore. She had decided that she could not allow there to be anything beyond friendship with her partner, and she was determined to stick to that.  
  
*If I keep telling myself it's wrong,* Kiyone thought, angrily brushing her hair, *Eventually the dreams will stop. And I'll be able to look at her when she gets out of the shower without getting all flustered. And when she says I can kiss her if I want to I won't feel like This anymore.*  
  
* * *  
  
"Well, you can't say we didn't warn you."  
  
Captain 'Please, just call me Quan, professor Tatoraki' Takima leaned back uncomfortably in the cramped confines of her office aboard the Corona. Jurain Fleet ships were luxury vessels compared to the Corona and he had been having a hard time since coming aboard.  
  
"So what do we do?" Takima asked, for at least the fifth time.  
  
Atiena shrugged, as she had each time he asked, and shook her head. "I don't know.. Quan. The planetary confinement team just isn't equipped to handle something of this magnitude. They agree that our Artifact needs protection, but it would take a full division of the Fleet to quarantine a whole system. Maybe my people can come up with something, or we could ask over the two-U."  
  
Takima cocked an eyebrow, one of his more common expressions. Like all Fleet captains he seemed to have a limited array available, all of which were designed to make his chiseled features appear in a manner that would probably be described as 'dashing' or 'debonair,' were Atiena the type of person to use that sort of adjective.   
  
"The what?"  
  
Atiena resisted the urge to roll her eyes and explained, "It's short for the UUN, which is short of the UU Network, which is short for the University-band Ultra-space Communications Network."  
  
"Ohh," Takima said, the light of understanding dawning in his stereotypically hard-yet-warm eyes, "The UCT."  
  
"UCT? No, no, I don't want to know. The last time I made the mistake of asking for an explanation of a Fleet acronym I spent two weeks trying to dig through the KOL manual before I gave up."  
  
"Really?" Takima sounded doubtful. "I always thought that the Reconnaissance and Exploration Drone manual was fairly straightforward. But I don't think you should broadcast on the UCT about the Artifact."  
  
"What? Why not?"  
  
Takima glanced nervously at the door, as though expecting spies to fall through it after leaning too hard while listening. "Until we have it confined I don't think we should let anyone know about this outside your ship and the Fleet. We don't know what this thing is, but we can't let whatever technology controls that defense mechanism fall into the hands of anti-imperialists."  
  
"But how can we confine it?" Atiena asked, exasperated, "It's too big for us. If you won't let us call in extra help, what are we supposed to do?"  
  
Takima pursed his lips and Looked Thoughtful. With Takima you could almost See the capital letters in his expressions. Either he was Looking Worried or he was Making A Difficult Decision or, as now, he was Looking Thoughtful. Atiena wondered, despite herself, what he did when he was out on a date. Perhaps there was a Leering Seductively expression in there...  
  
"Hmm." Atiena idly curled a lock of her blood-red hair around one finger, a habit she had been attempting to break for going on sixty years now.   
  
Sudden inspiration dawned in her eyes and Atiena slammed her hand down on the table triumphantly, exclaiming, "Ahha! I've got it!"  
  
Takima shifted flawlessly from Looking Thoughtful to Curiously Expectant.  
  
"The Hakubi trans-spatial diffraction lens," Atiena explained, pulling up the University Archive interface on her desktop holo-display. "We can't actually stop people from getting near the artifact, so we'll make sure they can't see there's anything to get near."  
  
"I'm sorry, the what?"  
  
"It's a device for cloaking extremely large objects," Atiena said distractedly, navigating carefully through cluttered and little-used portions of Archive-space. "Nobody's built one since the prototype model, the Holy Council outlawed them a few decades after the inventor disappeared."  
  
"Then how do you know about it?" Takima asked curiously, "And why is it illegal?"  
  
"The council decided that being able to hide objects the size of planets would be detrimental to the continued efficiency of Jurain imperial security."  
  
"Yes, I suppose that makes sense. But how do you know about it if it was banned?"  
  
Atiena glanced up from the archive display and blushed. "Well.. I did my thesis on Professor Hakubi's banned experiments. Specifically, on how Jurain government was holding back the development of the sciences by banning key technologies."  
  
Takima frowned. "You're a Uranist."  
  
"I am not," Atiena retorted defensively, "I wrote my paper twenty years before Uran came into power. And I have no association with his following now that he's there.. I think he's a sleazy little bastard and I'll be glad when the emperor finally crushes him."  
  
Takima raised an eyebrow, apparently at the passion of Atiena's denial, but made no further comment.  
  
"Here, look," Atiena rotated the display so the captain could see the schematic now hovering between them. "See? Not hard to build at all, and since you're Fleet I'm sure you can get a dispensation or something to allow us to put one together."  
  
Takima frowned and cycled through the schematics. He was no scientist, but you picked up on things as a starship pilot. "This is insane, it shouldn't work at all."  
  
Atiena nodded excitedly, pointing to a particularly redundant clump of circuitry. "See this? Nobody even knows what it does, but before the device was banned attempts to remove it from the prototype resulted in complete field degradation. All her work is like this.. either it's the most brilliant piece of engineering you've ever seen or it makes absolutely no sense. It's like she already knew all the answers, but wasn't quite sure how to get there from the questions."  
  
"Who?" Takima asked with an air of detached curiosity, still examining the bafflingly complex schematics.  
  
"Professor Hakubi," Atiena explained, "Hakubi Washuu? I'm sure you've heard of her.. everyone has. She was probably the greatest scientific mind in the universe."  
  
"Was? What happened to her?"  
  
Atiena gaped. "I can't believe you've never heard of Mad Prof Washuu... Five thousand years ago she just vanished. There was some kind of catastrophic failure in her last experiment and she was presumed dead for centuries, along with her lab assistant Yakage." Atiena saw recognition in Takima's eyes then and continued on, "Yes, that Yakage. Nobody knows what her experiment was, the records were destroyed in the accident and the Board refused to divulge its own files. Whatever it was, Yakage was working on it with her. So was Kagato. A few centuries after the accident Kagato was promoted to A class on the GP's most wanted lists and some factors in the accident took on a new light. Now most people think she was either killed or captured by Kagato."  
  
"Captured? So she might still be around?"  
  
"Oh, I doubt that. She was at least ten thousand by the time of the accident, if she were still alive she'd be the oldest biological humanoid in the galaxy. But there are people who still insist she's kicking around somewhere. Just a few days ago there was a big fluff on the two-U over some holo-stills supposedly taken that day at the palace on Jurai. There's a woman in them that looks like the old pics of Prof Hakubi, only a little older.. but you know how easy it is to fake that kind of thing... So what do you say? Can you pull some of that Fleet muscle and get us the papers so we can build one of these?"  
  
Takima frowned and pinched his lip thoughtfully. "I think that could be arranged."  
  
"Great," Atiena started to get up, already forming a mental list of things she would need to do to get the parts and expertise to build a Hakubi lens. "We'll have it ready in a week at the outside."  
  
"Not so fast Atiena," Takima raised a finger in reproach, "May I call you Atiena?"  
  
Atiena sighed. "I should have known. What does Fleet want in return for the dispensation?"  
  
"Oh, I don't think Fleet will want anything. It will get this Artifact problem out of our branches. But if I'm going to push it through the channels, I want something."  
  
Atiena's eyebrows went up involuntarily. Subterfuge? Out of the illustrious captain? "What?" She asked, her anger temporarily ousted by curiosity.  
  
"If I get you your papers, I want you to come over to my ship tomorrow night for dinner. With me."  
  
*Right again Professor,* Atiena thought wryly, *If that's not Leering Seductively I don't know what is.*  
  
* * *  
  
Tenchi slid his arm around Ryouko's waist when she caught up to him in the hallway and squeezed her reassuringly. He did not know what she was upset about, but it was clear from the feelings she was unintentionally streaming across their link that something had her riled.  
  
"What's wrong?"   
  
Ryouko only shook her head and leaned against his shoulder while they walked. Mataeo, Ai, and Ryou-ohki were down the hall with Aeka's tailor, having been sent off by Sasami's when the woman discovered just how many people she was expected to clothe in a few hours. Dinner was still a ways off, but they all wanted to catch up beforehand. And everyone except Sasami and Washuu were nervous about dining with the royal family and wanted the princess to give them some idea what to expect. Kiyone and Mihoshi were supposed to join them shortly, it was taking longer for Mihoshi to get dressed than normal thanks to her sudden impairment. Even Washuu was stumped as to what could have caused that particular malady.  
  
"Come on," Tenchi prodded gently, "tell me."  
  
Ryouko sighed and took his arm from around her waist so she could hold it while they walked slowly along the wide corridor. She started to speak twice, each time unable to get beyond the first word.  
  
//I asked mom about.. you know, your condoms.//  
  
Tenchi flushed and squeezed her hand where it rested on his forearm with his free hand. "Ah."  
  
Ryouko nodded and sent, //I was so embarrassed. It's all your fault, you know. Before your birthday and the gems and everything I could have gotten through it without even blushing. Now just thinking about talking about sex makes me uncomfortable.//  
  
"Sorry dear."  
  
Ryouko smiled and shook her head slightly. "Don't, it's okay. I'd rather be with you and never talk again than the alternative."  
  
//Besides,// Ryouko continued silently, //Not talking about it all the time makes it.. I don't know...//  
  
//Special?// Tenchi asked.  
  
//Yeah, I guess. Before it was just something I wanted.. now it's like it's a secret just between us. I like that.//  
  
//Well I certainly hope it's just between us...//  
  
"Tenchi!" Ryouko gasped and swatted his shoulder, "You're impossible!"  
  
"Sorry dear," Tenchi repeated with a grin.  
  
Ryouko rolled her eyes and hooked her hair back over one ear absently before taking hold of his arm once more.  
  
"Anyway, mom said she can't help. There's no way for her to open the portal from here. And she was worried about the Slave.. we should have told her before."  
  
Tenchi shrugged. "We'll tell everybody at dinner. It's better this way than trying to explain it all half a dozen times. And it's not like everybody's been lining up to be talked to lately."  
  
Ryouko nodded slowly. "You're right. I still feel bad though, for making her worry."  
  
Tenchi patted her hand comfortingly and Ryouko smiled.  
  
"So she didn't have any advice?" Tenchi asked, trying to sound nonchalant.  
  
"Sort of," Ryouko's frown returned, "She.. she said I shouldn't be so worried about getting pregnant. And she slapped me."  
  
Tenchi stopped in his tracks, causing Ryouko to falter and stumble at the sudden stop. He turned to her, his eyes searching her face worriedly.  
  
"Are you okay? Why would she do that? Are you hurt? Where is she?"  
  
"Tenchi," Ryouko said soothingly, resting a hand reassuringly on his chest, "Calm down Tenchi. I'm okay. She only did it because I said..." Ryouko trailed off, looking away from his eyes. She wanted to tell him, but somehow could not. Despite her mother's words Ryouko still harbored her doubts, both about her abilities as a prospective mother and about her own humanity. She knew it was silly, but she was afraid to tell Tenchi about her fears because she worried he would agree. She knew, intellectually, that he would not, but emotionally she was terribly afraid that if she said, 'I'm not human,' Tenchi would only nod and say, 'Of course not.'  
  
*Why does it even matter?* Ryouko wondered, uncomfortable under Tenchi's worried gaze in her silence. *What difference does it make if I'm human? He loves me, that's what's important.* Ryouko sighed inwardly. She knew what it was, even if she was reluctant enough to admit it that she would not even speak it aloud mentally. She knew Tenchi loved her, and that was enough for her to be happy, but she wanted to know he loved her for who she was, not despite it. She was afraid to let him ever find out about some of the things she had done in the past five thousand years because she was afraid it would be more than Tenchi could deal with and his love would turn to fear. He loved her now, she had no doubt about that whatsoever, but did he love her because she was Ryouko, one time space-pirate, or despite that she was once a wanted criminal and would always be a creation of her mother's lab?  
  
*I'm being stupid,* Ryouko thought, *Who would love someone because they were a felon? Or a.. whatever I am. It's enough he loves me how I am now.. it's not like it's an act or something. I'm not who I used to be, mom was right about that, and if Tenchi loves the new Ryouko then I'll just forget that the old Ryouko ever existed.*  
  
"Ryouko?"  
  
Ryouko smiled, a genuine smile brought to her lips by the caring in his voice. "It's not important," she said, taking his arm again, "I'm not mad at her, let's just forget about it, okay?"  
  
Tenchi nodded slowly, the expression of concern lessening.   
  
They walked on for a few more moments in silence. They had unconsciously chosen the long way from Sasami's chambers to those of her sister and were now separated from the others. Any trip through the palace had at least a dozen possible routes thanks to the complexity of the sprawling web of corridors and the one they followed would take a few more minutes at least.  
  
"So what do we do?" Tenchi asked suddenly, startling Ryouko. "Do you want to..."  
  
Ryouko shook her head. "I'm not mad at mom, but I don't even want to risk that. I'm sorry Tenchi, I know you want children."  
  
Tenchi blinked, surprised. "I... I guess I do, someday. I'm not in any hurry though, and if you don't want them I guess I can live without."  
  
Ryouko smiled and nuzzled his arm. "I love you, you wonderful man. I'd love to have your child Tenchi, but I'm not ready for that yet. Too much responsibility for this girl... I'm afraid I'd screw up."  
  
Tenchi raised his arm and kissed her hand where it rested on his forearm. "You'd make a wonderful mother," he assured her, "I know it. But nothing before we're ready. I don't know how great a father I'd make anyway."  
  
Ryouko sighed. "So what're we going to do?"  
  
Tenchi raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at her. "About what?"  
  
Ryouko rolled her eyes in dramatic exasperation. "You know..." //...about sex.//  
  
"Well," Tenchi said thoughtfully, "We could wait until we get back I guess. Mihoshi and Kiyone leave at the end of the week, unless Sasami wants to stay longer I guess that'd be a good time to get back. At least for a while. Too much Jurai all at once is kind of overwhelming."  
  
When Ryouko did not respond Tenchi looked over at her and laughed at the horrified expression on her face. "What?"  
  
//Wait? You want to wait? A week? It's already been a week... I thought men were supposed to want it more than women.//  
  
Tenchi grinned. //Some of us just have some restraint.//  
  
//Well quit being so damned restrained, husband.//  
  
Tenchi raised an eyebrow and sent teasingly, //What? You'd rather I was all over you all the time?//  
  
//Might be nice,// Ryouko countered, //I like it when you're all over me. Makes me feel appreciated.//  
  
Tenchi frowned, his playful mood vanished. "I'm sorry," he said quietly.  
  
Ryouko matched his frown and stopped, bringing him to a halt.  
  
"What's wrong?"  
  
Tenchi only shook his head and mumbled, "Nothing."  
  
"Come on Tenchi," Ryouko sighed exasperatedly, "It's obviously not nothing. What's wrong? Was I coming on too strong? I'm sorry, it's just it's been a whole week and I-"  
  
"No," Tenchi interrupted the explanation before it could intensify the blush already rising to her cheeks, "It's not that. I don't mind.. it's kind of nice knowing someone wants me. It's just..."  
  
"Just what?"  
  
Tenchi sighed. "I feel like I'm taking you from granted Ryouko. We always do things that are important to me, or that I want to do. You tell me you love me all the time, but it seems like I don't say it nearly as much to you. And I don't think I'm.. I mean, I haven't really..."  
  
Ryouko cocked an eyebrow, looking slightly annoyed but waiting for him to finish.  
  
"I don't think I'm very good at.. you know. I mean, you're the only person I've ever.. and I don't know..." Tenchi trailed off uncomfortably, blushing and looking at his feet.  
  
"Let's see what's wrong with all that, shall we?" Ryouko asked, raising a hand to tick off points as she went along. "First of all, you don't take me for granted. I do like it when you're the one making the first move, but I never feel unappreciated. Never. I mean it.   
  
"Second, we do things I want all the time. Remember last month, that movie you didn't want to see but you took me anyway? Or when I told you I missed you and you came to sit in my European Renaissance lecture even though it bored you half to sleep? You're always doing things I want, but most of the time it's things we both want. If I want something and you don't agree, you'll know.   
  
"Third, you just asked me to marry you Tenchi. Marry you! If that's not telling me you love me, what is? That's enough to make up for a million other times, and you tell me often enough that I know it."  
  
//And as for the last one,// Ryouko continued silently, staring at him intensely, //You have absolutely nothing to worry about. You aren't the only one who was a virgin that night, Tenchi. And if there's anything I'm missing out on, I'm not sure I could handle finding out about it.//  
  
"Really?" Tenchi asked, a hint of disbelief in his voice though the redness of his face did not diminish.  
  
Ryouko took his hand and smiled, her own complexion quite tinted. //You thought I was faking?//  
  
"I.. Er... I mean..." Tenchi rubbed his neck and admitted, "Maybe a couple times."  
  
//Never. I promise. Every last scream and moan were for real, Tenchi. Husband.//  
  
Tenchi coughed. //Maybe we should figure something out after all...//  
  
Ryouko grinned. "It's a shame I can't just teleport back."  
  
"Why can't you?" Tenchi asked, taking her hand and starting to walk once more.  
  
"Not enough power.. the further away I try to go the more energy it takes. I might be able to get there if I really pulled on the gems, but if a place is far away it's harder to control. I could end up halfway between Earth and the Moon, or halfway down in toward the core. If I had enough power I could do it anyway.. you can make up for control with energy, sometimes, but it'd take a huge amount."  
  
"Hmm," Tenchi said thoughtfully. "What about when we went to Tokimi's palace and back? That had to be pretty far away."  
  
Ryouko nodded. "It was. I think. I used one of Zero's memories to get us there. There aren't many of them, she wiped most of her database just before we assimilated, but there was enough for that. But that was different.. it wasn't me, it was us.. with the wings."  
  
"So why don't we just do that again?"  
  
"What?" Ryouko asked, startled, "Summon the wings? Together? Like in the hospital?"  
  
Tenchi nodded. "Sure. I don't think it would hurt if we did it right. Last time we didn't know what we were doing. If we summon them with the link open all the way from the beginning I think we'll be okay."  
  
Ryouko frowned. "I don't know..." She did not think she would ever forget that pain. That Tenchi had survived worse every time he used the wings was more than she could bear to contemplate. She knew she could never willingly submit herself to that again, it was worse than anything Kagato had ever done to her with his pain inducers. Remembering Tenchi's words back at the campground just before he summoned them made her heart flutter. That he would willingly endure that torture for her...   
  
*How can I doubt him?* Ryouko wondered, *He went through that, just for me. He would rather have died than summon the wings again.. but I wanted him to do it and he did. How can I think he would stop loving me? For any reason?* But the fear remained. And it was that that held her back from agreeing to Tenchi's plan. The pain was bad enough in and of itself, but she thought he was probably right about the link. When she had opened her end entirely the pain had gone away. But opening the link full-bore meant more than she thought Tenchi realized. They were too distracted by the pain and its cessation for either to notice last time, but with their bond totally unrestricted both would have free access to the other's mind. Tenchi would be able to see all her memories, even the ones she hid from herself but had not yet had time to fully purge.  
  
"Come on honey," Tenchi said, pausing in their journey once more, "I'll go first. If it hurts you can just shut the link down and you won't feel it, then I'll stop and we can find some other way. And if it works... I'd like to go back to that place, wherever it was we went after the pain stopped. It was..."  
  
Ryouko nodded, agreeing with his unspoken comment. The sea of light on which they floated after summoning the wings together the first time was nothing short of amazing. The way her essence was fused with his, her being existing only as an extension of Tenchi's.. it was better than sex, by a thousand-fold. The thought of it made her want to push aside her doubts and fears, even without the opportunities that access to that vast sea of power would afford them.  
  
Ryouko bit her lip and nodded again. "Okay," she said, trying to sound confident, "Okay, let's do it."  
  
* * *  
  
"Highness," Puer tapped his chest as he entered the room, looking off toward the wall rather than directly at the emperor, "Tanos Aeka requests audience."  
  
Azusa nodded and waved a hand agreeably without looking up from the graph hovering above his work table. It was a complex thing of shifting colors and a small constellation of accompanying text, all meant to present the political attitudes between factions loyal to Jurai and those with other interests around sectors nineteen through twenty-eight. He had, of course, entered all the data himself, but it was often useful to look at things from other perspectives and in different formats to find new angles with which to deal with arising problems.   
  
This particular problem was a singularly thorny one involving the shifting allegiance of some thirty-two worlds in one portion of the Thousand Suns. A minor dictator had set himself up as a new emperor on one world, arousing little more than mild curiosity from the throne. When an empire spanned some nine thousand planets, not to mention artificial outposts and worlds, like Earth, that were merely under the Empire's protection, it would be nigh impossible to keep up with every madman making a claim of isolation.  
  
Unfortunately, this madman managed to drag a few billion other people along with him. His central dogma rested on the idea that Jurain tradition was holding back advancement in the rest of the galaxy and that only by overthrowing Jurain rule would they be able to continue the natural progress of science and the arts. There had been, admittedly, fairly little development in the sciences in the past few centuries. But most researches attributed it to the Nakumi Paradox, the concept that the more one learns, the more questions one has, and the harder they become to answer, rather than to any sort of Jurain social influence. The little dictator was a smooth talker, though, and convinced a fairly large body of people over the past two hundred years that his views were correct.   
  
Oddly enough, however, he apparently had no aspirations for empire. Instead he only wanted concessions from Jurai to allow the University to find extra-imperial funding and lowering of restrictions on paths of study. Given that he promised to step down from his position, but without those concessions he promised to fight Jurai at every step. The second concession Azusa was willing to grant readily, even if his opposition had not had a few handfuls of worlds ready to secede from the Empire, but the first was unthinkable. To allow the University, a Jurain-founded institution, to seek extra-imperial funding would give factors entirely outside his control a voice in scientific and military development. It would mean releasing Jurain military technology to worlds outside the Empire.   
  
Now Azusa was searching for a means by which to defuse the situation without losing citizens or face.  
  
*Perhaps,* the ruler of five trillion citizens thought, *We could allow extra-imperial funding bodies, but restrict access to the archives? Maybe some sort of Empire-only divisioning to the University structure to allow for sensitive projects under continued secrecy while allowing other bodies access to the less critical sections? But will they go for that?*  
  
  
"Father."  
  
"Good day Aeka," Azusa replied to his daughter's greeting, still studying the floating graphic. "I did not expect you back from some time yet, did things not go well on Earth?"  
  
"I..." Aeka stopped herself from answering, she was not here for idle chatter. "May I speak with you away from the throne?"  
  
Azusa nodded distractedly, rotating his graphic. "The crown is attended," he said automatically. The phrase was meant to say that the symbol of his office was under guard, not on his head, and as such Aeka could speak freely as his daughter.  
  
"You beat me." It was not a question, and the tone of Aeka's voice brooked no room for equivocation.  
  
Azusa looked up then, touching his display off and pinching the bridge of his nose with a sigh. She could see that he knew this day would come eventually. Aeka stood, her hands trembling behind her back, for moments that seemed to stretch toward eternity while she waited for him to respond.  
  
"Yes," Azusa replied finally, his voice firm.  
  
Aeka was taken aback. She had not expected a lie, of course, but some sort of defense at least. Not a simple, flat agreement.  
  
"Why?" Aeka pleaded, "Why did you do it? Was I such an incorrigible daughter? Always those same words, but never an explanation..."  
  
Azusa sighed and folded his hands in his lap. "To discuss the lessons of the Second Change with one not yet of age is-"  
  
"I already know about them," Aeka interrupted, "I know about the lesson of pain and that only members of the House Jurai receive it. But that does not explain why you exercised it on me."  
  
Azusa shook his head sadly before responding. "You say that you know of the lessons, but you obviously do not understand them. As emperor it is my duty to maintain the strictest code of morality with my children, that my family may serve as an example to all families in the Empire. When I disciplined you-"  
  
"Beat me." Aeka interrupted, "You beat me. You did not 'discipline' me. Discipline is a lecture or the revoking of privileges, what any other girl in the whole of the thousand suns could expect for the things I received your lesson over." Aeka's voice hardened as she continued, "You did not 'discipline,' you abused me, and you abused my brother. My brothers."  
  
Azusa blinked at that, but pushed it aside. "It is my duty," he reiterated, "To do otherwise would be to fail the people of Jurai."  
  
"And what about me?" Aeka pleaded, her manner shifting once more from anger to desperation, "What about your family? Your duty as a father? How could you do that to me? Have you any idea how it felt to think I deserved to be hurt for my actions?"  
  
Azusa shook his head again. "I am sorry that you feel that way Aeka, but when your second Change comes and you have the complete lessons you will see the truth of it. To hear bits and pieces second-hand simply is not the same as-"  
  
"I won't!" Aeka shouted, "I'll not have them! If the lessons will twist me to believe that striking my children for minor offenses is right and correct, I won't have them!"  
  
Azusa's eyes widened and he stammered, "But.. but, to not take the lessons at the proper time... It's.. it's unheard of, Aeka. You must, you simply must..."  
  
"I must nothing! I am tanos of the Empire of Jurai, I will not be told what I must do!"  
  
"You forget yourself," Azusa growled, "I am your father and your emperor. I say you shall have your lessons as is proscribed by tradition-"  
  
"Damn tradition!" Aeka's face was flushed and her hands shook violently with a confused mixture of rage and pain. "It's wrong! It's all wrong! Don't you see what the lessons have done to you? You actually believe that beating me nearly to death for pretending to kiss a servant to make Yousho jealous was correct!"  
  
"Aeka! Calm yourself! You are making a spectacle!"  
  
"Or what?" Aeka demanded, "Will you beat me again? Shall I go wait in the chamber for your cane?!"  
  
"If it is necessary," Azusa warned, his face clouded with growing anger at his daughter's impropriety.  
  
"Never! Never again will I allow anyone to abuse me!" Aeka promised in a shrill cry, "Try it and I will see you do not succeed without broken bones!"  
  
Azusa gasped, shocked at the very concept. "You would threaten me? Me?! Your father? Your emperor?!"  
  
Aeka tossed her hair and strode forward, closing the distance between them while loosening the wrists of her dress.  
  
"Do you know the consequences of your actions, Father?" Aeka asked, all the rage gone from her voice. She spoke now in the flat, near-monotone she had employed only a handful of times in her life, a state beyond anger and passion.  
  
Aeka pulled back her sleeves, first one, then the other, exposing faint lines on her arms where old wounds had not yet fully healed.   
  
"Do you recognize these?" Aeka demanded, holding her arms out to her father, "Do you recognize their significance?"  
  
Azusa's anger melted under growing horror as he stared, wide-eyed, in disbelief at his daughter's arms.   
  
"No," Azusa begged, his voice gone small and distant, "No, it cannot be. Tell me this is some ruse, some mistake... Tell me this is not..."  
  
"Yes," Aeka confirmed her father's unspeakable fear, "Yes father. I performed the liann. I gave my body to a.. a Thing that struck out at me from fear and unreasoning anger, using your words taken from my own hidden memories. It abused me, telling me it was for my own good, to keep me from becoming a whore and a liar. And I believed it father. I thought that blows taken under those words were just and deserved, and it twisted my mind to feel I deserved the pain. And when it demanded I perform the liann and offer myself to it, I did it nearly without hesitation.   
  
"That being is destroyed now, but my body remains its possession. I gave up my right to existence because of the fear and confusion inspired by your actions, father. Because of you I am tanda jaliann qe, the wandering, body-less soul."  
  
Aeka shook her arms under her father's face. He stood, slack-jawed, unable to tear his eyes from the horrible evidence on his daughter's arms.  
  
"Do you see now father? Do you see the consequence of your actions? Because of you I subjected myself to the liann. Because of you."  
  
Aeka turned, pulling her sleeves back into place. She heard her father trying to say something, but it came out little more than a moan.  
  
Aeka buttoned her sleeves and strode out of the emperor's chambers, leaving Puer and Toka to stare after her. She fled to her own chambers and sat on her bed, waiting for the tears to come. Aeka sat that way for what felt like hours, but they never came. Whether she had simply cried all the tears she had to cry, or if the pain of the memories had somehow been supplanted, or something else entirely, she did not know. She knew only that rather than the devastating sadness and pain she expected, there was only a vague hollowness in the place where once all the buried grief had rested in a tight knot of darkness.  
  
In confronting her father, Aeka realized, she had confronted her fear. She had lived afraid that he, or someone like him, would forever hold power over her. She feared that no matter what she did or where she fled, always there would be someone stronger waiting to beat her for her insolence. But she had thrown herself to the fury of the storm in her father's eyes and survived unscathed. Now, no matter what else should happen, she was free. Finally free of the pain that had haunted her, usually nameless, since the last time she emerged from the darkened chamber two days after being beaten. Never again would she accept pain without cause, and never, ever again would she allow herself to be 'disciplined.'  
  
* * *  
  
  



	3. transmogrification

transmogrification

** Note **  
** This is chapter 3, if you've not read chapters  
** 1 and 2, you're in the wrong place.  
** In addition to all the stuff from the first  
** disclaimer: Several characters mentioned  
** herein are the property of, at the very least,  
** Kevin Smith and View Askew Productions. I'm  
** sure there are others.. but they seem like nice  
** guys and I'm sure they won't sue me. Right  
** guys?  
** Also, this chapter is titled in honor of  
** those characters. If you don't like the  
** title, the alternate (original) title is:  
** home is where the heart is  
** Happy reading,  
** -- krin (krin@hotmail.com)  
** /note **  
  


Reflections of a Shattered Glass  


  


-- three --  


  


transmogrification  


  
"Dammit Aeka! Open up! It's my turn, you've been in there for two hours already!" Ryouko pounded on the bathroom door again but to no avail.  
  
"I'll be out when I'm ready," Aeka's reply came from within, her voice full of the haughty tone that Ryouko was almost positive she affected only to grind her nerves. "Besides," Aeka continued, "you're filthy enough that a few more minutes will make no difference!"  
  
"Why you..." Ryouko summoned power from her gem and condensed it in the palm of one hand, aiming the incumbent energy blast at the door.  
  
The blast left a round, smoking hole in the door through which Ryouko reached and tugged the latch open, pushing the door aside as she stepped through.  
  
"Well!" Aeka blustered, trying to find a towel to pull over herself, "I never!"  
  
"Yeah," Ryouko agreed, "and with that body you never will."  
  
Aeka flushed and gave up on the towel, crossing her arms over her chest and sinking down into the pool of the bath until only her head was above the water, her violet tresses fanning out around it. "Hmph," Aeka snorted, "leave it to you to rely on the most obvious replies."  
  
Ryouko looked back over her shoulder from where she stood at the door, hanging a spare towel over the hole, and asked, "What? You'd rather I said you're a prissy, frigid little bitch who would probably make Tenchi pretend to be satisfied with a hand job because she'd be too worried about the mess breaking her royal cherry would make; If she ever got him blasted enough to get into bed with her?"  
  
A low growl emerged from Aeka's throat and her eyebrow twitched in the nervous way it had acquired since being forced to live with Ryouko. Three small logs shimmered into being, hovering around her head as she rose from the pool. "Whore!" Aeka shouted, energy crackling about her tiara.  
  
"Ice queen!" Ryouko countered, a malevolent gleam coming to her eye and a twin to the door-opening sphere of energy growing in her palm.  
  
* * *  
  
"Come on Masaki," Amagasaki taunted, holding the photograph just out of Tenchi's reach, "'fess up. Who are they?"  
  
"Give it back," Tenchi pleaded, snatching futilely for the elusive picture. "They're nobody! Just some girls I met over the summer!"  
  
"Oh yeah?" Amagasaki asked, turning the photo back to hover in front of his bulbous nose and squinting eyes. "How 'bout giving me their numbers?"  
  
"What?!"  
  
"Come on Tenchi," Amagasaki said with a lecherous grin, "they're nobody, right? Gimme their numbers, Amagasaki could use some of that lovin'."  
  
"No way!" Tenchi shouted, making another failed grab for his property. *Why did I carry that around anyway?* Tenchi lamented silently, *I shouldn't have had the damn thing in my wallet to begin with...*  
  
"Well, lemme keep it then," Amagasaki bargained, pushing his thick glasses up his greasy nose. "They're way hotter than my usual girls."  
  
"Ugh," Tenchi groaned, disgusted beyond words at the thought of Amagasaki looking at the girls while he... "Give it back, you..." Tenchi sought for a word of sufficient malice, but gave up, "Pervert!"  
  
"No way," Amagasaki grinned and held the picture up, taunting Tenchi to jump for it, "not unless you tell me who they are. You're boning 'em, right Tenchi? Come on, you can tell ol' Amagasaki. You're always playing shy, but you're a real dog, right? Good ol' Tenchi, always acting all innocent, but I bet you're all over the ladies over the summer, right? Do you do 'em one at a time, or both at once?"  
  
Tenchi's fist was connecting with Amagasaki's over-sized nose before he realized he had cocked his arm back to strike.  
  
"Ow!" Amagasaki yelled, dropping the picture as his hands went to his injured face, "Thit Tenhi! I fink you broke my futhin nothe!"  
  
Tenchi snatched the handkerchief from his pocket and handed it to Amagasaki to stop the bleeding, apologizing profusely and begging the bigger boy not to tell any of the school staff.  
  
"A'ight, a'ight," Amagasaki agreed stuffily, "I won tell anybody Tenhi. God, you're thuch a dip thumtimeth, I wath juth kidding. Take you futhin picthuh back if ith tho importhant to you."  
  
Tenchi bent and retrieved the photo, smoothing wrinkles put in the corners by Amagasaki's big fingers as he turned away, leaving his so-called friend holding the blood-stained handkerchief to his face.  
  
"Asshole," Tenchi muttered, carefully replacing the picture in his wallet.  
  
* * *  
  
"Just leave me alone!" Ryouko shouted, storming across the lab floor.  
  
"Ryouko," Washuu pleaded, trying to match strides with her longer-legged daughter, "Let me explai-"  
  
"I don't want to hear it!" Ryouko spun, face flushed in anger, to confront the little scientist, "I don't care why you thought it would be a good idea to string me up like a damn fish! I don't care! I just want you to leave me alone!"  
  
"Ryouko, I only wanted-"  
  
"I Don't Care!" Ryouko turned and began once more the journey toward the lab's elevator, wishing, not for the first time, that she could use her powers in this section of the complex. Her ragged clothing hung damp against her skin with sweat and her throat was sore from screaming for help. She felt the tightness of dried tears on her face and knew she must look a wreck, but wanted nothing more than to get out of this damn lab and, hopefully, never see it again.  
  
"Ryouko," Washuu tried again, "I'm your mother, please, let me explain-"  
  
"You're not my mother!" Ryouko stopped once more, fresh tears forming in her eyes as the terrible night in the dark and the things she had begged and promised the empty lab for her release came rushing back again in her mind. "You're not! You're not my mother! You're some stupid little freak who thought it would be fun to play god and whip me up in her lab! You think I should be Grateful? For being created so I could end up Kag-" Ryouko choked on the name but pressed on, "End up His toy for five fucking thousand years?! Get out of my face, get out of my life and get out of my god damn head!"  
  
Washuu looked hurt, but Ryouko did not care. The little freak could keel over dead for all she cared.   
  
"Ryouko..." Washuu began, but Ryouko drowned the rest in a scream of frustration and fury, turning to stalk once more toward the elevator.  
  
  
"What am I Doing?!* Tenchi wondered for the fifth time, but he moved no further to get up than he had the first four. In fact he leaned closer to the crack between the door and the wall to afford himself a better view.  
  
Aeka had left the door to her bedroom open a crack and, passing by on the way to the bathroom, Tenchi caught a snatch of quiet song from within. Stopping to listen he saw Aeka from the corner of his eye through the slightly open door, slowly removing her kimono in preparation for bed. Tenchi's face flushed and he knew he should keep on toward the bathroom, but the sight of the princess' diminishing attire held his gaze like a magnet.  
  
Now she was naked but for a pair of lacy cotton panties and was sitting on a stool diagonally across from the door. She brushed her long hair with slow, smooth strokes in time with the quiet song she sang in a language Tenchi did not recognize.  
  
*God,* Tenchi thought, *I'm as bad as dad. I should stop this, get up and-*  
  
Aeka turned slightly, putting her chest in profile against her lamp, and thoughts of flight fled Tenchi's mind as quickly as he knew he should flee the door.  
  
The princess stood, drawing a gasp from Tenchi when she bent to retrieve her nightdress. When she slid it over her shoulders a small, secretive smile played about her lips at the feeling of the cool, sheer material against her skin.  
  
Tenchi rose, his hand going without thought toward the door handle before he stopped himself.  
  
*What are you doing?* Tenchi railed, shock overcoming rushing hormones as he realized his sudden boldness.  
  
*Going in there,* came the reply, *to take that thing back off of her. That's what.*  
*No! I can't, it's not right, she's a princess.*  
  
*Yeah, so?*  
  
*It wouldn't be right! I'm not thinking, this is all wrong, what would Ryouko say? I shouldn't be doing this at all!*  
  
*Maybe I should go see her instead,* Tenchi thought, his hand moving away from the door, *she's willing.. Aeka would probably scream and kick me out.*  
  
Tenchi shook his head and sighed, turning not toward the livingroom where Ryouko would be asleep on her beam but back toward his own bedroom. *Listen to me, I'm such a pervert. Peeking at Aeka! Thinking of going to Ryouko! Next I'll be dreaming about Sasami!*  
  
* * *  
  
*Maybe I should just forget him,* Ryouko thought morosely, taking another sip from her drink before leaning sadly against the bar, *He doesn't love me. He'll probably go off to Jurai with the bitch princess and forget all about old Ryouko.*  
  
"Hey pretty lady," the speaker, a Japanese businessman by the suit, sat down next to her at the bar with a beer bottle in his hand. He had obviously had a few before this, both by the slur of his speech and the slightly unsteady way he gripped the stool as he clambered aboard. "Haven't I seen you here before?"  
  
Ryouko rolled her eyes. "I doubt it."  
  
"Come on honey, how much?"  
  
"What?"  
  
"How much?" He asked again, his eyes crossing slightly.  
  
"For what?"  
  
"Just a quickie.. I gotta get home by ten," he leered at her, "The wife'll get nervous if I'm not."  
  
"What are you..." Ryouko's voice faltered as she realized what he was talking about. *He thinks I'm a hooker.. the little sleaze!*  
  
"I've got fifty American," the drunken man held up a few grimy bills in demonstration, "I won it off some idiot gaijin over there drinking sake. I'll give you half for a blowjob, whadda ya say?"  
  
Ryouko licked her lips seductively and leaned across the space between them, resting one hand between his legs.  
  
"I think I'll just take all of it," Ryouko suggested in a husky whisper, "If you don't mind." She released a little surge of energy into her palm and the businessman's eye's went wide. A little groan escaped his lips and then his eyes rolled back, the lids fluttering shut over unbroken white before he collapsed against the bar. Ryouko snatched the money out of his hand and tucked it into her pocket before tossing off the last of her drink and walking casually out of the bar.  
  
* * *  
  
Tenchi switched his grip on the knife, holding it the way he had seen his grandfather hold knives when he was practicing. He reached toward the door, his hand finding the knob just as the lights came on behind him.  
  
*That's the last time,* Tenchi thought, fingering the lump on his forehead that kept his eye swollen shut. *Three times Shiko's beaten me up this summer, and every time I did like Mom said to do when somebody bullies me; just walked away. And every time him and his stupid friends chased me down.* Tenchi reached around to touch the swollen place on the back of his head, wincing in pain when he stretched his bruised side. They had used sticks, this time.  
  
*Not again,* Tenchi thought resolutely, *I'm sick and tired of getting picked on just because I'm smaller than him. He's not even as old as I am!* Tenchi squeezed the knife in his sweaty palm. He did not really plan to cut Shiko with it, just use it to extract a promise from his cousin to leave him alone. *If he's too stubborn,* Tenchi thought angrily, reaching for the door handle, *Then maybe I'll just nick him a little bit...*  
  
"Tenchi?" Achika asked sleepily, "What're you doing out of bed this late?"  
  
Tenchi froze, trying to tuck the knife into the sleeve of his pajamas before his mother saw it.  
  
"Tenchi?" She asked again, walking down the hall toward him.  
  
Tenchi racked his brain for an excuse before inspiration struck. He shut his eyes and tried to relax. When his mother touched his shoulder he jumped, spinning around.  
  
"Mom?" He asked, trying to sound startled, "What? Where am I?"  
  
Achika frowned and knelt in front of him. "Were you sleepwalking again honey? Let's get you back in bed."  
  
*Again?* Tenchi wondered, letting himself be guided back to his bedroom, the knife hidden away inside his pajamas.  
  
*I'll get him,* Tenchi vowed silently as his mother tucked him into bed, *Tomorrow night, I'll get him.*  
  
* * *  
  
Ryouko pulled slowly and the man screamed, his voice rising in pitch as his skin separated from his chest to dangle in a loose strip with the others.  
  
"What," he gasped, tears streaming down his face, "What do you want? I'll do anything! Anything!"  
  
Ryouko's face was emotionless, lit by the green light of her eyes and the flickering illumination cast by the fire of the man's house where it burned behind him. He was stretched on the ground before it, arms held in place with long spikes driven through the palms.  
  
"Nothing," Ryouko's lips moved with the words, "Nothing at all. Only to hear you scream."  
  
The tiny part of her mind that was still Ryouko screamed with the man when she peeled off another strip of flesh, but it was to no avail. Kagato's control was absolute and soon the man would be as dead as his wife, where she lay nailed to the ground next to him, her own flesh stripped away. She had made him watch, while she killed her.  
  
* * *  
  
"Oh.. oh, uh.. hi Tenchi," Nobuyuki greeted his son nervously, pressing frantically at the remote control before finding the off button.  
  
Tenchi sighed in disgust and stood at the edge of the couch. "Again dad? What is it this time? Tentacles? School girls? Both?"  
  
"What?" Nobuyuki asked, pushing up his glasses, "What're you talking about Tenchi?"  
  
"Come off it dad," Tenchi muttered, picking up the empty, un-labeled video cassette box, "I know what kind of stuff you watch. You think I'm blind? All of us know."  
  
"Tenchi," Nobuyuki began, "You don't understand-"  
  
"Yeah, yeah," Tenchi groused, tossing the box back on the coffee table, "Which stupid excuse is it this time dad? I'm just so.. so Sick of it! You're such a pervert, it's disgusting!"  
  
"Tenchi-"  
  
"I can't stand being around you anymore!" Tenchi shouted, cutting his father off, "Every time it's the same thing: 'Oh, look at that one Tenchi,' 'Isn't she a cutey Tenchi?' 'When are you going to make your move on that Ryouko Tenchi?' 'Hey, if you're not going to do anything with Aeka, how about letting your old man have a shot at it, Tenchi?' Ugh!"  
  
"I never said that!"  
  
"You might as well have," Tenchi grabbed the remote from his father's shocked fingers. "What perverted crap is it this time dad? Do I even want to know?"  
  
Tenchi turned the television on, angrily pressed the play button, and the screen filled with an image of...   
  
Of his mother, playing with him as a young child, out at the shore of the lake with his grandparents standing nearby and watching their daughter proudly.  
  
"Oh.." Tenchi gasped, dropping the remote to clatter on the wooden floor. "Oh god dad. Oh god, I'm so sorry..." Tenchi turned and fled up the stairs.  
  
* * *  
  
"Take her," Ryouko commanded, her face slack under the glaring light of her eyes.  
  
The man shook his head wildly and cried, "No.. please... You can't.. She's my daughter! She's only eight!"  
  
"Take her," Ryouko said again, a thin line of energy forming over her fist. When he only shook his head again she brought it down across his bare back, drawing another line of blood to join the rest cross-hatching his skin. He screamed and the little girl tied to a post near where he knelt screamed too.  
  
"Do it," Ryouko commanded, her voice as empty of feeling as always, "Or she dies."  
  
"Then kill her!" He shouted, "I'd rather she died than that!"  
  
"When she is dead," Ryouko said, forming another thin beam of force, "You will cook and eat her hands. You will take her, this way or that. Take your daughter's chastity, or take her life. It is in your hands now." Ryouko smirked, an expression that tugged her facial muscles in unnatural ways while failing utterly to touch her utterly dead green eyes. "And, soon, her hands will be in you."  
  
The man sobbed as one more wound joined the mass of blood-weeping lines across his shoulders. He looked up, his eyes desperate and his face a mask of agony. "She'll live? If I... You'll let her live?"  
  
Ryouko shrugged. "Maybe."  
  
As the shadow of her father loomed over the tiny girl she looked up fearfully. "Daddy?" She cried, "What's going on daddy?"  
  
* * *  
  
Tenchi wiped his eyes again, trying to keep his hand steady enough to write. The note was nearly done and then it would be time. He re-read what he had already written to make sure he did not leave anything out.  
  
Everyone,  
I am writing this to say that I'm sorry. I'm sorry for  
how I've treated all of you: Ryouko, Aeka, Sasami, Washuu,  
Mihoshi, Ryou-ohki, Father, Grandfather, I've disappointed all  
of you. I can not decide between you girls and I don't think  
I ever will be able. I don't deserve your love and I don't  
understand why you give it. I'm not the man you think I am.  
I'm a weak, scared little boy with no honor. I disappointed  
you too father. And mother. You wanted me to grow up to be  
a real man, like you are dad, but I'm not. Mom wanted me to  
be strong and help you, but I never was and never did. Now  
I'm just embarrassed to be around you, even though you're more  
of a man than I'll ever be. Grandfather, you wanted me to be  
a warrior, like they were in the old days, but I'm not. They  
had honor and commanded respect.. I'm just a stupid kid. I  
can't even use a sword right. A warrior would have chosen one  
of the women who love him, I just lead them all on.  
So this is it. I'm going to go be with mom, like all  
good little momma's boys do, and let you all get on with your  
lives. With me gone you can go back to being yourselves,  
instead of always worrying about poor Tenchi. All you girls  
are wonderful and I know there are men out there worthy of you,  
but I'm not them. Be happy, I never could have made you that.  
Dad, Grandpa, I'm sorry I couldn't be what you wanted. Now you  
won't have to waste any more time on trying to teach me.  
  
Tenchi nodded, satisfied, and signed it "Goodbye," with his name. *Well,* he thought, putting down the pen and looking at the knife lying next to the piece of paper on his desk, *I guess that's it.*  
  
Taking the razor-edged blade from the desk in one hand and the note in the other, he stood, walking toward the door. He planned to leave the note outside the bathroom door and do the deed in the bathtub to avoid making a mess. The last thing he wanted was to cause any more trouble for them all.  
  
He dropped the note to the ground and slid the door shut, kneeling in the tub and holding one wrist out before himself. The knife hung in the air, quivering over his skin. Tenchi's breath came in little gasps as he forced the blade closer. When it touched his wrist and a thin line of red grew at its edge he sighed, dropping the razor to clatter on the floor of the tub.  
  
"I can't do it," Tenchi groaned, holding his bleeding arm, "I'm too big a wimp to even kill myself right."  
  
Tenchi took the razor and walked out of the bathroom, pausing to grab some toilet paper to hold over the shallow wound. He took the note from where it lay on the floor and crumpled it into a ball, tossing it into his bedroom trashcan before flinging himself onto the bed.  
  
*Maybe pills,* Tenchi thought, tears beginning to flow down his cheeks as he contemplated the total failure that was his life, *then I wouldn't have to do anything. Just swallow them and it's done. But what kind do you take?*  
  
* * *  
  
Yousho's armor was torn and tattered, what remained of it scorched across most of the surface. His body was in similar shape, a mass of bloody gashes and sizzling burns, yet he fought on.  
  
"I want to help you!" He shouted, rushing Ryouko with his sword blazing. "Let me help you Ryouko!"  
  
Ryouko growled and loosed another volley of energy bolts at the charging Jurain prince. Most of them skittered across his failing shield, but one bore true and scored against his shoulder. Yousho faltered, nearly falling to his knees. He forced the wounded arm to move, bringing both hands once more to grip his energy sword.  
  
"I won't let you kill me, Ryouko," Yousho promised, "The goddess has shown me the truth! I know you are no demon! You are a woman, controlled by another! Fight it, not me! I will help you!"  
  
Ryouko shook her head, simultaneously trying to push through the weight of Kagato's control and hold herself back from just that. So complete was his dominance that she even fought her own resistance.  
  
"No, Jurai," She hissed, her own sword forming in one hand, "You do not want to help, you want only to harm! I will destroy you, and find the source of your power in the cooling pile of your corpse!"  
  
Ryouko flew at him, his sword catching hers as she bore down toward his head with a wild swing. She saw herself reflected in his eyes, her own solid green with Kagato's presence.  
  
Yousho grunted, trying to hold his blade parallel to his shoulders and avoid the devastation promised by Ryouko's weapon. "I," he gasped, "Do. Not. Want. To. Kill. You. Ryouko."  
  
"You lie!" Ryouko pushed harder, forcing his blade down by inches.  
  
"Tsunami," Yousho whispered as the fury of Ryouko's sword inched closer to his face, "Give me strength to do your will..."  
  
* * *  
  
Tenchi fell to his knees on the livingroom carpet and Ryouko collapsed against him, gasping so hard for breath that she could not hear his labored panting. Tears stung her eyes and she thought he was crying too, but her vision was too blurred to tell. For long minutes Ryouko clung to Tenchi like a piece of drifting flotsam in a stormy sea, desperately grasping at him to keep herself away from the abyss of depression and madness brought on by the memories they had shared.   
  
Eventually Ryouko found herself and realized what she was doing. She pulled away from Tenchi and climbed unsteadily to her feet. He fell over, his body wracked with shuddering sobs, and Ryouko's heart ached with her need to comfort him. When her fingers were only inches from his face Ryouko stopped, suddenly seeing them covered in the blood of the people she had murdered, seeing Tenchi kneeling in a bathtub, a razor pressed to his wrist because of the despair she had helped inflict on him. No, she could not comfort him, she was not fit to comfort him. She was a monster, Tenchi would no more want her hands on him than he would want to be touched by burning brands.  
  
"I... I'm sorry," Ryouko gasped between sobs, pulling herself again to her feet and stumbling back, away from him, "I'm so sorry Tenchi. I.. I wish you'd never seen that. I wish it had never happened. I'm sorry... I.. I'll go. You don't have to say it, I know.. I know you won't want me anymore..." She turned, stumbling toward the door and seeing Tenchi's blood beading around the knife blade again with every unsteady step, hearing the screams of her victims with every one of his gasping breaths where he lay curled on the floor.  
  
Her hand on the doorknob, Ryouko heard Tenchi moaning her name, softly, over and over. Her entire being urged her to go to him, hold him, assure him she was still there, make him promise never, ever, Ever to try to take his own life again.   
  
Instead, she turned the knob. Tenchi would not want that. He was probably trying to tell her to go away, or crying out in fear of her. He did not want her, she knew that as surely as anything. He would never want her again. How could he?  
  
"Goodbye Tenchi," Ryouko sighed, pushing the door firmly shut behind her, "I love you."  
  
* * *  
  
Nobuyuki re-entered the room and shook his head at the group's wondering stares.  
  
"Still no sign of them," he sighed, sitting down on the couch of Aeka's reception room next to Sasami.  
  
Washuu tapped her transparent keyboard, made of fibramic rather than solid light here on Jurai where her holo-computer was outlawed by the Holy Council, and looked up sadly into the worried gaze of Sasami. "No luck on my end either."  
  
Sasami bit her lip worriedly and Washuu was struck by how much she resembled Ryouko. The princess' hair was rendered a shade of teal similar to that of Ryouko's cyan by the subtle lighting of the room and pulled back in a single tail the way Ryouko affected when she wanted to impress. Now she was even borrowing her facial expressions.  
  
"Where could they have gone?" Sasami asked no-one in particular, "It's been two hours."  
  
"Maybe they went off for a little time alone," Mataeo suggested, "If you know what I mean."  
  
Ai elbowed him sharply and Washuu shook her head.   
  
"No," the scientist said seriously, "I doubt it's that."  
  
* * *  
  
Tenchi crawled, gasping, to his knees, and stared at the door through which Ryouko had disappeared while he tried to pull himself back together. Reliving his own shame had been bad enough, but seeing the horror that was Ryouko's life... He had tried to form words when she spoke, but could find no voice for the few scattered thoughts he could piece together. Every time he blinked away tears he saw the furious green of her eyes reflected in his grandfather's and heard the screams of her buried consciousness while she killed the rest.  
  
Finally he found his feet again, pushing heavily against the coffee table in order to rise to them and stand, shaking, in the middle of the living room.  
  
*Oh god,* Tenchi thought desperately, *What have I done? I made her relive all that... I'm such an idiot! I never should have made her summon the wings again that way! She saw.. she saw me doing all those things... Everything I always hoped she would never find out about.. everything I hoped Nobody would find out about. She must hate me now.. that's why she left, she hates me...*  
  
"Ryouko," Tenchi moaned, taking a step toward the door only to fall once more to his knees, "Ryouko... Ryouko, Ryo.. oh..."  
  
*No,* Tenchi realized, *That's wrong. She thinks I hate Her, she thinks I'm afraid of her...* The realization came as much from Ryouko's memories, still lying partially submerged beneath his own, as from himself. *She thinks that after seeing what Kagato made her do I'll have stopped loving her.*  
  
Tenchi forced himself to his feet, wiping his eyes and shaking his head violently, his long hair whipping around him with the motion.  
  
"No," Tenchi grunted, "I won't let this happen. I won't lose her." Tenchi could see what Ryouko would do now, thinking his love lost forever. She had friends in Ai and Aeka, and family in Washuu and Ryou-ohki, but she had told him enough times that he was her guiding light that he could hardly forget it now. For two decades she had subsisted on her growing love for him and after emerging from the cave he was her life. Thinking their love shattered beyond repair and with nothing upon which to take vengeance but herself, he knew Ryouko would not see purpose in continued existence.  
  
"Let me not be too late," Tenchi whispered as he strode purposefully through the door and into the darkness of night. "Please let me not be too late."  
  
* * *   
  
"Me bored," Ryou-ohki complained, "lets go look for Aeka, Sasami. Please?"  
  
Sasami smiled and patted the fur-covered girl's hand warmly. Ryou-ohki was wearing her new dress, styled to match her sister's without the details to give it the same social significance.  
  
"Okay," Sasami agreed, "we'll go. She's probably in the gardens, that's the only place she's likely to go that the Guardians can't follow." Sasami turned to Washuu and asked, "Could you stay here in case they show up? Just tell the Guardians and I'll get the message."  
  
"I'd like to come with actually," Washuu replied, folding her computer and tucking it away in a pocket of her robe. "There's someone in the garden I'd like to speak to. Nobuyuki, Mat, Ai, would you three stand guard? And let Mihoshi and Kiyone know what's going on when they get here?"  
  
Nobuyuki looked up from the statue he was admiring in one corner of the room and nodded. "Sure. You'll be back before dinner, right? I don't know where to go in this place."  
  
* * *  
  
Ryouko was halfway to the forest when she felt it.  
  
She did not know where she was going, only that she had to get away from the house. Tenchi was there and she did not want to subject him to her presence. How awful must he think her, now? Seeing her at her worst that way? There were other times, hundreds of them, more than there had been time for him to but glimpse, but he had relived the highlights with her. Or the lowlights. Whatever.  
  
Ryouko stumbled along, the cool night air of the mountains drying her tears on her cheeks just slowly enough that she could taste their salty tang on her lips. She cast about desperately for something, anything, to focus on. Her life had collapsed in a matter of seconds when she summoned the power of the wings in the corridor on Jurai with Tenchi. She had pushed the power toward teleportation as quickly as possible, jerking them out of the silvery sea, but thought proved faster even than near-instantaneous travel and despite her efforts Tenchi had seen it all. And she had seen all of him. Now she wept over the pain she saw in Tenchi, the hurt he had harbored in private for years, and wept for the loss of her right to soothe it away. She tried to think of somewhere to go, something to do to get away from the pain, but all she could think of was the knife at his wrist and the words of his note. She had nearly lost him and never known. Now she really had lost him and had no idea how to deal with her pain.  
  
When Kagato nearly destroyed him; did, in fact, kill him, she had a focus for her rage. Ryouko stormed the Soja, knowing full well her chances of survival were slim to nothing. But now.. now there was no Kagato to blame. If Tenchi had killed himself she could even have cursed him for leaving her alone and held her memories close for comfort. But now.. now she had nothing. Tenchi was gone, as surely as if he were dead, but his absence worsened by the knowledge that he was only a thought away. For the rest of her life Ryouko would have but to will it in order to be at his side... And for the rest of her life she would have to keep herself from him. He did not want her, he Could not want her. And it was all her own fault. She should have told him no, explained what their bond would do without the distractions provided the first time they merged through the power of the wings, done Something to keep it from happening. But she did not, she let him go ahead and opened herself to him when his mind touched hers, and when he saw her past she made no attempt to stop him.  
  
Now it was over. The life she had built with him, the love she knew he held for her, the wedding she so cherished planning, the child she had begun to think she might one day be capable of raising; shattered. Destroyed by her past and her stupidity. What would Tenchi want with her? She was a monster; a whore for Kagato's mind; a murderer, torturer, thief, and destroyer. And because of it she had lost him.. lost her Tenchi.. lost her husband.. lost everything.  
  
When the surge of power came Ryouko gasped and her back arched, three round lights flaring on her forehead. When they dimmed and died she slumped back to her former posture. As the haze of power cleared her mind Ryouko saw she was no longer alone.  
  
* * *  
  
Aeka sighed and tossed a pebble into the stream, wondering what to do next. She had come to the gardens hoping that Yousho might be there. He had always disliked the constant presence of the Guardians in his youth and of the places in the palace where a member of the House could go without them, the gardens was the only one to which he would have access in his current state as a non-entity. But she had seen no sign of her brother here and now sat on a low stone bench, watching the water.  
  
*I should go apologize to mother,* Aeka thought, *I did not follow her wishes with father and he will likely-*  
  
"Aeka!"  
  
Aeka looked up to see her sister hurrying up one of the gardens' cobbled paths toward her, Ryou-ohki in tow.  
  
* * *  
  
Tenchi searched the night for any sign of Ryouko, but saw nothing but darkness. The moon was only a sliver and shed barely enough light to walk by. She had a good ten minutes head start and would likely be to the woods by now.  
  
Tenchi stretched out with his mind awkwardly, ill-used to such exercises even after months of having the ability. Mental communication, he had discovered, was like threading a needle using tweezers and a microscope. Very, very easy if you were up close to the other person and extremely difficult from any distance. Now he reached out, casting around for the flare of Ryouko's self in the dark vastness of his focused mind. He had always been cautious in such things before, both because of what had happened immediately after the establishment of their bond at Christmas and out of fear of Ryouko seeing all the thoughts and memories he wished to keep private. Now none of that mattered, he only wanted to find her and be with her.  
  
*She's never going to let me live down peeping at Aeka,* Tenchi thought, pushing at the limits of his limited telepathy, *God, I hope she never does. I'd rather she yell at me for the next decade and make me sleep on the couch for a century than.. than... I have to find her.*  
  
Tenchi pushed harder, grasping at his temples and bent half over with effort. His head felt like it was splitting in half, like the hemispheres of his brain had decided to feud and were now attempting to rip the corpus callosum in two. Tenchi grunted, then found he could not draw another breath. His lungs had shut down under the strain and he felt his heart slowing. Still he pressed on.  
  
There, just as consciousness was fleeing, Tenchi felt her. Like the first star of night against a canvas of a black and blue sky he saw the light of her being and focused in on it, bringing the breadth of his omni-directional search into narrow definition. The flickering star of Ryouko's mind burst into focus, a ranging sun of emotions and thoughts, memories and desires. Tenchi's will, spread thin over miles of empty land until now, poured against her mental defenses like an avalanche, powering through the shields her consciousness automatically erected like a tumbling boulder shattering the stillness of a mirror-surfaced pond.  
  
Tenchi gasped air into his starved lungs and his heart surged back into action, skipping beats arythmically as it tried desperately to pump oxygen to his brain. Ignoring his body, Tenchi fueled his connection Ryouko with his desire, his base need, to be near her. The tendril of his being casting about within her mind for some hint of location latched onto.. something. He felt momentarily as if he were being guided, unconsciously, by Ryouko. And then something.. twisted.  
  
* * *  
  
"Katsuhito?" Washuu asked, stepping cautiously into the little glade.  
  
"Ah," the figure already sitting on a bench there replied, "so someone recognizes me after all."  
  
"What.. what happen?" Washuu asked. "Another disguise?"  
  
The man with Yousho's voice shook his head and smiled beneath the black moustache providing a bridge between the face of a young prince and that of an old priest. "No, no disguise this time. I visited a Binodi clinic this afternoon."  
  
Washuu gasped, her eyes going wide in shock. "Binodi? Those butchers? Only criminals go to those dives!"  
  
Katsuhito sighed and leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees, and looked up at her. "What else am I? I fled the throne, Washuu. Binodi have no eyes, they work by touch. No others on the planet would have performed the process without recognizing me for the long-lost tatam Yousho of Jurai."  
  
Washuu stepped closer, reaching out to tip his face up toward hers and look appraisingly at its new lines. Finally she smiled her approval and took a seat on the bench beside him.  
  
"The Binodi have gotten better in the past few thousand years."  
  
"Mmm," Katsuhito agreed. "You like my new face then?"  
  
"Why did you do it?" Washuu asked rather than responding to his question. "Why go to the Binodi? Why have your face altered at all?"  
  
Katsuhito sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. He had never had more than a few threads of silver, but now it shone with the luster of youth.  
  
Washuu took his hand and squeezed it warmly. "You look good Katsuhito. Or shall it be Yousho, now?"  
  
Katsuhito smiled and patted her hand in his. "You decide. My first wife chose the name Katsuhito, and it was from my second that I took the name Masaki. If you are to become a part of my life now as well, it is fitting you choose my new title."  
  
Washuu closed her eyes and leaned back, considering. After a time she opened them again, a smile on her lips. "I think Katsuhito will do. But," she added with a grin, "I'm going to call you Kat."  
  
Katsuhito chuckled, "I suppose it could be worse. I could have been stuck with 'little Kat.'"  
  
Washuu quirked an eyebrow and said, "Who says you aren't? I'm just saving that one for when we're Alone." Washuu accented the final word to leave him with no uncertainty as to what, exactly, she meant by 'Alone.'  
  
Katsuhito sighed and leaned once more on his elbows. "Give me time old woman. A man does not upset his life in a few days."  
  
"When you're ready, Kat," Washuu promised, rubbing his shoulder. "When you're ready."  
  
* * *  
  
"T.. T... Tenchi?" Ryouko stammered, staring at him as the aura of dancing blue flames surrounding his figure died away. "H.. How?"  
  
"I.. I don't..." Tenchi began, looking down at his hands.  
  
"I'm sorry," Ryouko sighed, turning away. "It must be me. I must have brought you here. I'm sorry." She phased out, reappearing on the rooftop of the Masaki home.  
  
*Why here?* Ryouko wondered, looking around. *Force of habit, I guess.* Ryouko sighed and sat down in her usual spot, thinking that Tenchi would take some time getting back to the house in the dark. She would only sit for a few minutes, she reasoned, and then off to.. off to...   
  
Ryouko hung her head in despair. She had nowhere to go. Nowhere at all.  
  
* * *  
  
"Aeka," Sasami asked, "have you seen Tenchi and Ryouko?"  
  
"No, not since.. not since at least yesterday. I have had a very busy day today, Sasami. Why? Is something the matter?"  
  
"No," Sasami sighed, shaking her head, "I guess not. Only, we were all getting new clothes and then when we were going to your chambers to meet up they never got there."  
  
"New clothes?" Aeka asked, finally noticing Ryou-ohki's dress as the girl-ne-cabbit tried, without much success, to subtly show it off.  
  
"Yeah, for dinner tonight."  
  
"Pretty, Aeka?"   
  
"Mm," Aeka agreed, patting Ryou-ohki on the shoulder, "very. What dinner?"  
  
Sasami frowned and wrinkled her nose. "You didn't know? I thought everybody knew. Daddy wanted us all to come to dinner tonight."  
  
"No," Aeka said, her voice going distant, "no, I didn't know. I.. I don't think I'll be there. I'm sorry, please tell everyone I'll see them later."  
  
"What? Why won't you be there?"  
  
"I.. I.. I don't want to.. to see father, right now."  
  
"Oh," Sasami sighed, "right. I.. I guess I forgot. That happens, sometimes. If I know something 'cause of Tsunami and she's busy, I forget. Are you sure you won't come? Everybody'll be disappointed. Tenchi had nashim sujite made and he looks really good in 'em. And Ryouko got a new dress and everything."  
  
Aeka looked up sharply from the stream where her gaze had wandered. "Suji? Of a nashim? Who ordered that? Surely not him?"  
  
Sasami blushed and looked down, nervously kicking a the cobblestones. "I.. I kinda did."  
  
"You shouldn't have done that Sasami," Aeka said in light reprimand. "Not until he has had his position announced."  
  
Sasami sighed and looked back up at her sister. "You don't get Announced as a nashim. He just Is one. Isn't he?"  
  
Aeka frowned and started to respond, then stopped herself. "Yes," she agreed finally, quietly. "Yes, I suppose so." Aeka shook her head and continued, voice firm once more, "Still, you should have asked me first."  
  
"Well," Sasami replied, exasperated, "if I could have Found you... And have you seen Grandfather? I haven't been able to find him all day either."  
  
"Mommy!" Ryou-ohki called, rushing off from the company of the two girls who were considerably less interested in her new dress than she felt was proper.  
  
"Aeka," Katsuhito greeted casually, ruffling Ryou-ohki's hair when the girl grabbed Washuu in a hug, forcing the scientist to remove her arm from his, "Sasami. The day finds you well, I hope?"  
  
Sasami turned and her jaw dropped. Behind her Aeka stammered, "Y.. yo.. Yousho?"  
  
* * *  
  
"Ryouko."  
  
Ryouko spun, floating away from the roof to stare back at Tenchi where he stood a few feet above her former position.  
  
"Stop this Ryouko."  
  
Ryouko sighed. "I wish I could. I didn't mean to. I'm sorry..." She phased out again.  
  
Ryouko looked around the vicinity of the cave mouth, trying to remember when she had last been there. Giving up the futile exercise she sat down on a rock, trying to avoid thinking about Tenchi.  
  
*That must be it,* she reasoned. *If I just don't think about him he won't appear. I just have to not think about him. Ha! Not think about Tenchi-*  
  
"Ryouko."  
  
Ryouko yelped and leapt up from her rock, hovering six feet off the ground and staring in disbelief at Tenchi were he stood at the mouth of the cave, limned in pale blue fire.  
  
"I didn't mean to... I know you don't want to see me," Ryouko sighed. "I didn't want to summon you. I didn't know I could even do that. I'll go."  
  
"No," Tenchi stated flatly, walking around the rock toward her, "stop running from me Ryouko. Right now."  
  
*God he's handsome,* Ryouko thought randomly, watching the wind whip his hair around his head as he strode purposefully forward, that new robe of his stretching tight in the breeze against his profile. *I love him.. the gods help me but I love him.*  
  
"Come down."  
  
Ryouko shook her head weakly. "I know you don't want to be around me Tenchi. You don't have to tell me. Just let me go. You'll forget about the things I did.. you'll find someone else.. someone who's not a monster like me."  
  
Tenchi sighed and.. and rose up from the ground to float beside her.  
  
"How.. how can you.. what..."  
  
"I'm not," Tenchi explained, taking her limp hands in his, "you are. Memories aren't the only things we're sharing." Ryouko felt a tickle at the back of her mind, like someone rubbing a feather against the inside of her skull, and they were back on the rooftop.  
  
"I love you Ryouko."  
  
"No," Ryouko denied, pulling her hands away. "No you don't. You can't."  
  
"I can," Tenchi countered, "and I do."  
  
Ryouko sat down heavily on the roof tiles, hugging her knees. "You don't love me Tenchi. Nobody could love me. I'm a monster, a thing from a lab. I'm not human... You saw what I did. I don't have feelings. You love the person you make me." Ryouko looked up at him, her eyes pleading for understanding, "Don't you see? What if something happened? What if our bond was broken? I'd go back to being her again.. emotionless, cruel, evil... How can you love that? You're in love with yourself, reflected in me."  
  
"That's not true," Tenchi said angrily, squatting beside her. "None of it. Not at all. I love Ryouko. The sensitive, gentle, caring woman who gave me her powers and her heart and helped me find my way out of the dark hole I'd dug for myself. You're her. You always were. I didn't make you anything you weren't, I just showed you how to be yourself.. just like you showed me how to be myself.  
  
"I saw your memories. I saw you killing, torturing, pillaging, and destroying. I saw you almost kill my grandfather. But all the time I saw the real you.. buried way down inside where even He couldn't find you. Every time, Every Single time for five thousand years, you tried to stop yourself. You never gave up. Every time he made you kill, you screamed and tried to pull your hands away. Every life you took weighed on your conscious. Don't bother denying it, I saw it. I know it's true. Is that a monster? Is that a thing with no feelings?"  
  
Ryouko only shook her head and sighed, "I still did those things. I wasn't strong enough. What if I do it again? What if I had your child and I killed it? Even if it wasn't on purpose? What if I got mad and blew up our apartment? What if I got in a fight with Ai and ripped her apart? She doesn't have shields like Aeka..."  
  
"Ryouko-"  
  
"Tell me!" Ryouko demanded, "Tell me you'd still love me then! I'm not human Tenchi! I'm a.. a thing! I'm no better than that thing you killed in Tokimi's palace."  
  
Tenchi took her hand and pulled her up to a standing position.  
  
"Ryouko," he began, pulling his robe over his head, "I want you to listen very carefully to me. Just listen, when I'm done what you do will be your own decision." Tenchi pulled his loose Jurain shirt off and tossed it aside with the robe, then went down on both knees in front of her.  
  
"I love you. I know who you are, and I love you. I will always love you." Tenchi took her hand and put it against his chest. "Now do it."  
  
"Do what?" Ryouko asked, confused.  
  
"It. Whatever it is you think I'm so god damn afraid of. Rip my skin off. Tear my heart out. Beat me, whip me, shove your energy sword through me. Do your worst Ryouko. You want me to be afraid of you? You want me to tell you to go away because I'm afraid of what you'll do? Do it."  
  
"Tenchi.. I..."  
  
"Do it!" Tenchi shouted, pressing her hand harder against himself. , "Do your worst Ryouko! Leave me the strength to speak and when you're done I'll tell you I still love you! God damn it, I love you! I'm not afraid anymore! You did that for me, and I'm not going to start again. The only thing I'm afraid of, the Only thing that makes me lay awake at night, is thinking of being without you. I want you here. I want to be with you forever, just like you promised me when I asked you to marry me.  
  
"You're my wife Ryouko! My Wife! Not Kagato's, not Washuu's, nobody else but me! If they want to think you're not human, screw them! You're My wife, and I say you're just as human as I am! Now, if you want me to be afraid, if you want me to run away and hide again like I did for all those years, then give me something to be afraid of. If you're going to do it, do it now. Do it now or accept you're human and never make me go through this again."  
  
"Tenchi... I wish it could be true. I wish I could be a regular girl for you. I wish I'd never done all those things, hurt all those people..."  
  
"You didn't," Tenchi growled. "You've never hurt anyone who didn't deserve it. All those deaths.. all that pain.. all if it rests firmly in Kagato's hands. And he's dead now Ryouko. I killed him. Never in your life have you killed of your own free will, but I have. Am I a monster then Ryouko? Am I not human? Will you stop loving me because of it?"  
  
"It's not the same," Ryouko sighed, trying to pull her hand away from his chest. "I should have stopped him. I hurt all those people-"  
  
"No," Tenchi shook his head in denial, keeping a firm grip on her hand. "You didn't hurt them Ryouko. But you're hurting me. Do you think I want you to rip my skin off? Of course not! But I'll let you.. if you do it, I won't even try to stop you. And do you know why?"  
  
Ryouko shook her head fearfully, not even wanting to imagine doing such a thing.  
  
"Because it might prove to you that I love you, no matter what you've done. Hell, Because of what you've done! All those years.. all that pain.. and you're still you! You stood up to it all and came out the same woman you went in. Hurt me Ryouko. Rip me apart. Kill me, if you want to. But don't hurt me this way. Don't tell me I can't love you."  
  
"Tenchi, I wouldn't..."  
  
"Then tell me you love me," Tenchi demanded, "Tell me that, and tell me that I love you too. Tell me and believe it and we'll forget all this. We'll go back and have dinner and we'll get married and we'll be happy. But this has gone on too long Ryouko, you've hated yourself for too many years for me to stop now. Accept the truth or kill me, those are your only options."  
  
Ryouko tried to formulate a response, and was nearly there when she felt Tenchi's mind in hers again. A tiny thread of his will, tickling the back of her mind as though searching for something. When she saw what it was she gasped, trying to force him back out, but it was too late. Energy rushed from the gems, into her hand where it was pressed against his chest. Tenchi grunted in pain, his hand tightening around her wrist in agonized spasms. His veins stood out across his chest and shoulders, his skin deepening to red, then purple. Ryouko screamed, trying to pull her hand away and shut off the flow of power simultaneously, but Tenchi held an iron grip on both her wrist and her mind. He flooded himself with energy, his teeth grinding together and his eyes fluttering back and forth in their sockets.  
  
When Ryouko felt his heart skipping beats against her hand she screamed again. He was dying, killing himself with her power, at her hands, and she had no way to stop it.  
  
"Stop!" She cried, weeping now. "Stop Tenchi! Stop it! I love you! I love you! I won't say you can't anymore! I.. I.. I don't want you to die Tenchi! I don't want to be away from you, ever again! Don't leave me..." Ryouko fell to her knees in front of him, throwing her free arm around his neck and pleading, "Don't leave me Tenchi... Please, Tenchi... I don't want to be alone..."  
  
"Say," Tenchi gasped, stunning Ryouko. She did not think anyone would be capable of speech in his state. "It," he finished, his grip on her wrist slackening.  
  
"Alright," Ryouko sobbed, trying to pull her hand away, "alright Tenchi, anything. I'm human! Is that enough? I'm human Tenchi, I'm just a weak human woman and I can't live without you! God damn it Tenchi! Don't you do this to me! Don't you dare leave me you.. you..."  
  
The flow of power ceased and Tenchi withdrew from that part of Ryouko's mind, leaving the connection open as he sagged weakly. Ryouko drew a few gasping breaths, staring at him in pain, confusion, and relief.  
  
*He.. he almost... He made me... He--* Ryouko pulled back her arm and delivered a slap to Tenchi's face that whipped his head around and drew popping noises from his over-stressed neck.   
  
"You asshole!" Ryouko shouted. "Don't you ever do that to me again! Ever! Do you hear me, Masaki Tenchi?"  
  
Tenchi rotated his head slowly back to face her and stared with quiet intensity. Ryouko noticed absently that the marks of his birthright were on his forehead still, though not glowing as they normally did. Just three thickening green bars slashed down the skin of his forehead, looking as natural as the rest of his face.  
  
"Never make me," Tenchi said quietly, deadly serious, and then collapsed against her. Ryouko gasped, wrapping her arms around him automatically.   
  
*What did I do? Oh god, after all I put him through...*   
  
"I'm sorry," she cried, "I'm sorry Tenchi."  
  
Tenchi drug his arms up from his sides, draping them over her shoulders in an exhausted hug. Ryouko buried her head in his shoulder and sobbed helplessly, clinging to him in desperation.   
  
"I love you," Tenchi whispered, kissing her head just above her ear, and she gasped out a matching response between shuddering sobs.  
  
Ryouko held him, really held him for the first time. Always before she pulled back a little, fearful of hurting him with her strength, but he was strong too. She had always known that, since the day she fell in love with him, watching him there at the cave, but never really understood. Ryouko crushed Tenchi to her in a grip that could fold a car in half, and he hugged her gently, swaying slightly in the moonlight while he reassuringly stroked her back.  
  
*I don't know why you love me,* Ryouko thought, nuzzling her face against Tenchi's neck, *but I'm glad you do.* Ryouko almost laughed at herself. Glad indeed, that was easily the understatement of the century. She could not say why it was so important that Tenchi love all of her, not just who she was now, but it was.   
  
Tenchi pulled back slightly, a little strength returning to his limbs, and smiled at her. Ryouko smiled back and held him supportively when he leaned forward to kiss her. His vitality was returning rapidly, but he still felt very weak in her arms.  
  
After a brief eternity Tenchi broke the kiss, his breath coming in a long, deep rhythm. Ryouko looked at the hand-shaped wound on his chest sadly and wished she had some way to repair the damage; but she was a fighter, not a healer.   
  
"Tenchi," Ryouko sighed, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry about your chest, and about.. about everything."  
  
"I'm sorry too Ryouko," Tenchi replied quietly, between breaths. "I should have dealt with this sooner, before it came to this. I let you live with all that pain bottled up for too long."  
  
Ryouko nodded sadly, noticing as she did so that there was a long brown streak of dirt down Tenchi's left leg. She looked down at herself, wiping her eyes, and saw that her dress was smudged with dirt and dust from the rooftop and the cave. The rest of Tenchi's clothes, where they lay in a heap a few meters away, did not look much better.  
  
"We're a mess," she observed.  
  
"Yeah," Tenchi agreed, his respiration evening out as he wiped the tears from his own face. "I wonder if they're dry-clean only."  
  
Ryouko chuckled softly, her emotional turmoil rapidly dissolving under the relative normality of topic. "We could use mom's washer..."  
  
"Your mother built a washing machine?"  
  
Ryouko nodded, smiling at the mild absurdity of the notion. "Yeah, she got upset when we ran out of soap for the regular one one day, so she built her own. She says it'll clean anything."  
  
"Well," Tenchi sighed, picking up his stained robe, "I guess it's worth a shot. But how're we going to get to it? It's in her lab, right?"  
  
"Mmm," Ryouko agreed, pushing herself to her feet. "But she keyed the door for me a couple months ago."  
  
* * *  
  
"Come on Sasami," Washuu urged, "let's go or we'll be late for dinner."  
  
"But what about Aeka and-" Sasami paused, unsure how to refer to Katsuhito.  
  
"Aeka and Katsuhito have some things to talk about," Washuu explained.  
  
"But can't you two talk later?" Sasami asked of the stunned princess and silent prince. "You'll miss dinner."  
  
"I don't think this particular conversation should be put off any longer," Washuu opined, looking meaningfully at Katsuhito.   
  
He nodded and said in an obvious attempt at cheerfulness, "Go on Sasami. Formal dinners last some time, I'll be there later."  
  
Sasami frowned doubtfully but let herself be led away by Washuu, Ryou-ohki following along behind them.  
  
"Aeka," Katsuhito began gently, "there are some things I need to explain to you, things I probably should have explained some time ago."  
  
"Yes," Aeka whispered. She turned her eyes from Katsuhito's new face toward the stream by which she sat. When she spoke again her voice was firm, "Yes, I think certain things have waited considerably too long to be said."  
  
* * *  
  
"Now," Ryouko said, looking around the relatively empty room the lab door had opened upon, "lets see if I remember how to do this..." She closed her eyes and bit her lip, brow furrowing in concentration. Just when Tenchi thought nothing would happen, a clone of Washuu's holographic computer terminal popped into being. Ryouko opened her eyes and beamed at him triumphantly. Tenchi applauded, grinning.  
  
"Hmm," Ryouko murmured, tapping at shifting icons on the surface of the terminal, "wombat, wheelbarrow, Wozniak, wisteria, wrench... Ahha! Washing machine." Ryouko touched a key with all of her mother's flourish, producing a rather unimpressive rectangular hole in the air.  
  
"That's a washing machine?" Tenchi asked, cocking his head to look at the hole from the side. It did not, as it turned out, appear to Have a side.   
  
"No, just the interface," Ryouko explained, reaching around toward the pressure-sensitive seam on the back of her dress, "the machine is in subspace somewhere. Here, could you do this for me? I can't reach."  
  
"Yes dear," Tenchi said, smiling and stepping closer. He touched the near-invisible seam and ran his finger down, along her spine. The material parted behind his moving digit, revealing Ryouko's back.   
  
"No bra today?" Tenchi asked, tracing his finger back up her bare back once the dress was fully opened.  
  
Ryouko turned around and flashed him a grin. "With this front?" She asked, poking a finger through one of the incisions forming the floral pattern across the chest piece of the dress.  
  
"You're right," Tenchi agreed, reaching up to hold the dress in place while Ryouko pulled her arms free, "I can see how you wouldn't want to restrain a front like that."  
  
"Tenchi!" Ryouko gasped, blushing at the unexpected compliment, "I meant the dress!"  
  
Tenchi nodded and let the dress fall from his fingers. The upper half of the garment tugged at the lower half where it hung, supported only by the curve of Ryouko's hips. "But I was talking about the fact that the only thing under the top of that dress was my wife." Tenchi took her hand and kissed her fingers delicately before saying, "My human wife."  
  
Ryouko smiled and nodded in agreement. "Just some more human under the bottom half too," Ryouko observed, slipping the dress from her hips to fall in a cloth puddle around her feet.  
  
"Ryouko," Tenchi asked cautiously, "when did you start...?" He trailed off, staring at the perfect reproduction of the insignia on his forehead that Ryouko wore below her waistline. Perfect, other than that it was defined by cyan hair rather than green skin.  
  
Ryouko blushed, an action that Tenchi noted made it nearly all the way to the bit of artistry in question. "I was going to surprise you.. on the camping trip... Only I guess we got a little distracted. Do you.. do you like it? I know some men like it when a girl shaves, so I got a depilatory from mom.. I told her it was for my legs. But I thought I'd look kind of silly, so-"  
  
Tenchi cut off her defensive rambling with a finger across her lips. "I'm not some men, dear. But I love it. I love you. You could be furry as your sister and I'd still love you, Ryouko. But I definitely like it."  
  
Ryouko smiled happily and reached up to trace a finger across his chest. Tenchi winced when she unthinkingly touched the wound left by her hand and Ryouko grimaced in sympathy.  
  
"I'm sorry," Ryouko sighed, "I really wish I could fix that for you Tenchi... We'll go see the doctors as soon as we get back to Jurai."  
  
"Don't worry," Tenchi chuckled, "it only hurts when I breath."  
  
"Why did you do that anyway? Couldn't you have used a less self-destructive demonstration? You scared the hell out of me Tenchi."  
  
"It worked though, didn't it?"  
  
"Yeah," Ryouko sighed, "I guess it did. But I wish you didn't have to do it. I'm an idiot."  
  
"You are not," Tenchi stated firmly, tilting her head back up to look him in the eye from where it had drooped during her moment of contrition. "I wish it hadn't happened too; but it did, and it's over now. And it's never going to happen again, right?"  
  
Ryouko nodded. "Never."  
  
"We'd better put the clothes in or we'll be late for dinner," Tenchi observed, hefting his robe and shirt toward the hole. "I just toss 'em in?"  
  
Ryouko nodded, tapping a key to engage the washing machine. She started to retrieve her dress, then paused, a wicked grin spreading across her lips. "Go stand over there Tenchi," she ordered, pointing to a spot halfway across the room.  
  
Tenchi frowned but assumed it was some part of the washing machine thing and went.  
  
Ryouko waited for him to get in position, then bent slowly to pick up the dress, leering at him all the while. "What do you think Tenchi," she asked, turning to step backward out of the piled dress before rising and pirouetting to face Tenchi again, "do I put on a better show than Aeka?"  
  
"Aeka?" Tenchi asked, walking toward her. "Who's Aeka? I don't see anybody here but my beautiful wife."  
  
"You should have come to me that night," Ryouko said, slipping her arms around his waist, "I'd have given you something to dream about."  
  
Tenchi chuckled. "You wouldn't have had to, I dreamed about you that night anyway."  
  
Ryouko raised her eyebrows in disbelief. "Really? Was it a good dream?"  
  
"One of the best," Tenchi agreed with a grin, "at least, the best until after the real thing."  
  
Ryouko's eyes widened and her eyebrows arched even higher. "It was That kind of dream? About Me? Back then?"  
  
"What, you thought I never had any?" Tenchi asked, running the fingers of one hand through her hair. "All those years and you figured I never even thought about the girls living in my house?"  
  
"Did you.. did you have a lot of those dreams?"  
  
"Why did you think I was always so upset when you spent the night staring at me?"  
  
"I thought-" Ryouko paused, trying to remember what reason she had come up with for that all those months ago. "I thought you were afraid I'd try something while you were asleep."  
  
"Nope," Tenchi laughed softly, letting his hand drift from her hair down across Ryouko's back, "I was afraid you'd come in and catch me staining the sheets or groaning your name in my sleep."  
  
Ryouko smirked and squeezed him, saying, "Wish I'd known that then.. I'd have come in more often. Why didn't you ever do anything about it? I was right down the hall, you know."  
  
Tenchi sighed, "You know why. I had the kind of dreams any teenage boy with a bunch of girls chasing after him would have, but I couldn't act on them. No way I'd do that without love, you know that, and I was afraid to love any of you back then."  
  
Ryouko nodded in agreement. "Yeah, but I wish you would've."  
  
Tenchi hugged her, trying to ignore the pain when her breasts pressed against his injured chest. "We're together now, that's what matters."  
  
Ryouko murmured agreeably, tossing her dress one-handed into the washing machine. "Come on husband, lets get you out of those pants and into something more.. comfortable."  
  
"We still don't have any protection," Tenchi sighed. "I could go upstairs and get dressed, then pop over to a store in town..."  
  
Ryouko closed her eyes and took a deep breath before saying, "No. Let's just do it Tenchi. Forget the condoms."  
  
"Ryouko..."  
  
"I want to," she said firmly, "right now."  
  
"But what if you get pregnant Ryouko? I don't think I'm ready to be a father yet."  
  
"I don't ovulate Tenchi, the chances of me getting pregnant are like one in three thousand. And if I do.. well, mom can whip me up an abortion pill or something. But I want you Tenchi, and I'm sick of condoms and diaphragms and all that crap."  
  
"Are you sure? This is a big thing.. we don't know if Washuu can really do that."  
  
"I want to have your child one day Tenchi," Ryouko sighed, leaning her head carefully on his shoulder. "I'm no more ready right now than you are, but one day I want to. I didn't want to admit it before, but I will now."  
  
"Ryouko... This is.. I mean..."  
  
"If you want to go get condoms it's okay," Ryouko assured him, looking up at his concerned expression, "but don't do it just for my sake. Tonight was.. tonight was really big for me Tenchi. All my life I've thought of myself as some kind of monster, and for most of it I had people telling me I was right. You made me start to think maybe it wasn't true, and tonight... Tonight I think I really believe it. I don't feel like a demon anymore Tenchi, you've seen all the bad things I've done and you're still here. That means a whole lot for me, more than I can tell you. It's like... It's like how you were afraid to ask me to marry you. I loved you and you loved me, but I was always scared that one day you'd see me for who I really was and drop me.  
  
"Well, tonight I'm not. Tonight you saw it all and you're still my husband, and I'm not scared anymore. I can do anything, be anybody, and you'll still be there. If we have a child and I make a mistake.. you'll be there to help. I'm just another human, I guess, and humans make mistakes."  
  
"I'm happy for you dear," Tenchi said, kissing her forehead, "but are you sure about this? I know how good it felt after I asked you to marry me, but this..."  
  
"I know," she agreed, "and it's okay if you don't want to. But I do. We've always used a condom Tenchi, even that first night. Every time with you is special, Tenchi, but tonight... Tonight is my first night with my husband. If I could make myself a virgin again for you, I would. I want to feel you Tenchi, not a piece of rubber. And when we're done.. when we're done, I want you still inside me. When we go to dinner in a couple of hours I want to look at you and think, 'That's my husband. He made love to me a little while ago, and he's going to again after dinner if I have my way, but he's still part of me.'"  
  
"Ryouko," Tenchi breathed, his face flushed a deep crimson. Ryouko reflected that the green lines on his forehead made him look really cute when he blushed. Her own face was completely clear of embarrassment. Ryouko wondered at that for a moment, then realized, *This is my husband. I've shared everything with him, what're a few words to get embarrassed about?*  
  
"Make love to me Tenchi," Ryouko pleaded in a whisper. "Make this human girl your wife."  
  
* * *  
  
"Kamadake?"  
  
"Yes," the Guardian asked, rotating toward his companion where they floated near the shrine, "what is it Azaka?"  
  
"Did you feel that?"  
  
"I can't feel anything Azaka, but I did not sense anything abnormal in the past few moments."  
  
"You didn't feel it?"  
  
Kamadake released a synthetic sigh and asked, "Feel what, Azaka?"  
  
"There has been a great disturbance in the force."  
  
"Alright," Kamadake grumbled, "that's it Azaka. I'm sending a message to Jurai, you are having your personality matrix examined."  
  
"No, no," Azaka protested, "I'm serious Kamadake. It just happened again. Pay attention for a minute."  
  
They waited silently for a few moments until Kamadake announced, startled, "You're right Azaka. Something odd Did just happen."  
  
"Mmm," Azaka agreed, "I find your lack of faith disturbing."  
  
"I think it was that signal Washuu alerted us to," Kamadake continued, ignoring the remark, "the one she found on Christmas."  
  
"I remember," Azaka said indignantly. "My memory core is just as good as yours."  
  
"It was back at the house, we should go look into it."  
  
"Aye aye skipper," Azaka cheered, following Kamadake when the Guardian floated toward the stairs. "Quickly, to the Guardian-mobile!"  
  
Kamadake sighed wearily and asked, "Okay Azaka, explain."  
  
"Da na na nuh, da na na Na.. Guar-di-an," Azaka sang quietly.  
  
"By the tree!" Kamadake growled, rounding on the singing Guardian. "Will you Stop this foolishness Azaka? It is unbecoming of a Guardian!"  
  
"'Elp! 'Elp!" Azaka shouted, giggling, "I'm bein' repressed!"  
  
The energy banks along Kamadake's nodori shuttered open, his offensive array glowing to life with a sound like a charging capacitor. "Stop this, Azaka, or I will stop it!"  
  
"Come see the violence inherent in the system!"  
  
Kamadake fired, the blast discharging harmlessly from Azaka's shields. "Azaka!"  
  
"I'm sorry," Azaka sighed, "I didn't mean to upset you Kamadake."  
  
The weapons array hissed shut and Kamadake rotated back toward the house. "I do not understand you Azaka. You were a fine Guardian, what has happened to you?"  
  
"What has happened to me?" Azaka asked in disbelief. "Me? What's happened to You, Kamadake? I remember times when I had to drag you back to the barracks after you'd drunk yourself blind, then call in the medics to make sure you hadn't picked up anything unsavory from the local whorehouse!"  
  
"Azaka," Kamadake said reproachfully, "I was never that bad, was I?"  
  
"You were! And I loved you for it! Remember our bonding ceremony, Kamadake? Remember what you said?"  
  
"'Don't worry your highness,'" Kamadake quoted himself quietly, "'I'll watch out for the kid. He won't get into anything but the best kinds of trouble.'"  
  
"What happened Kamadake?" Azaka asked sadly. "What happened to the Guardian I used to know? You were the fun half, I was the stodgy one. Why'd you change?"  
  
"I suppose death takes it out of you," Kamadake sighed. "What kind of fun can a man get into as a log? Hmph. In any case, we were given the duty of guarding the tanos of the House Jurai, Azaka. Such a responsibility is not to be taken lightly."  
  
"But do we have to be so sober about it? Their highnesses aren't as stuck up as you are, Kamadake. Look at minos Sasami.. by the tree, if I still had a body..."  
  
"If you had a body, what?" Kamadake asked in a tone of warning. "Remember of whom you speak."  
  
"Oh come off it Kamadake," Azaka pleaded. "The minos is a fox! And those clothes she wears... Can you imagine what lord Azusa would say?"  
  
"What is your point, Azaka? That you wish you were still human so you could endanger your life by courting her highness?"  
  
"No! I'm just saying.. quit being such a lurch, Kamadake. You're dead, live it up a little!"  
  
"Azaka," Kamadake sighed, "that makes no sense whatsoever."  
  
"So what? Does everything have to make sense? Did it make sense to charge a battalion of Timpasian mercs hopped up on timfala weed when the rest of our unit was down and there wasn't any backup on the way?"  
  
"That was a matter of honor," Kamadake replied gruffly. "We went to our deaths as Guardians should, protecting the throne."  
  
"Yeah, but you see what I mean? Not everything makes sense, Kamadake. Let your hair down for a little while you old bastard, it's just me here. We've been together.. what? Twelve hundred years now? I've seen you sick, naked, asleep, drunk, stoned, and sober as a rock. I've even watched you in bed, old man."  
  
"I don't have hair," Kamadake protested weakly.  
  
Azaka laughed, "Sure, not anymore..."  
  
"Fine," Kamadake sighed, "what would you have me do?"  
  
"Seven sons, Kamadake," Azaka cursed, "if I have to tell you, what's the point? What do You want to do? You're always so reserved, what's hiding away in that personality matrix of yours?"  
  
"Well," Kamadake said slowly, "there is one of Nobuyuki's tapes which intrigues me."  
  
"Alright," Azaka said with a tone that implied he would be rubbing his hands together excitedly, had he hands, "which one?"  
  
"I do not remember the title, but the box cover had two nurses in rather brief uniforms."  
  
"Oh, I know where that one is."  
  
  
Azaka floated up to the couch, attempting to lean against it next to Kamadake but without much luck.  
  
"Well pardner," Kamadake drawled, "I reckon this couch ain't big enough for the both of us."  
  
"Why Kamadake," Azaka asked, startled, "was that a joke?"  
  
* * *  
  
Azusa, emperor of the Thousand Suns, ruler of the five trillion citizens of the Empire of Jurai, lord of the Living Throne, undisputed leader of the House, fell to his knees. The careful facade he had erected for the trip between his apartments and the Inner Chamber shattered, revealing a man defeated beneath. Azusa dipped his hands in the pool surrounding the tree before which he knelt and brought a shining double-handful of liquid away. He sipped a mouthful, then splashed the remainder against his face, matting his beard and washing away the tear only half-completed in its journey from eye to chin.  
  
"Anomi," Azusa called, attempting to infuse his voice with some of the bearing he felt it should maintain, "I call audience. I need your assistance-" Azusa's voice broke and his shoulders slumped. "Anomi," he moaned. "Help me Anomi.. help me, mother."  
  
"Azusa... You are troubled, Azusa... How may we do to ease your pain?"  
  
"It's.. it's Aeka," Azusa sighed. "She... She performed the liann, mother. And it's my fault!"  
  
"Your fault, Azusa? Did you force her to do this thing?"  
  
"No," Azusa said, shaking his head sadly, "but it was my actions which led her to it. I.. I have failed her mother, I have failed her just as I failed Yousho. She will leave me just as he did and the throne will be empty when my time is spent."  
  
"What of Sasami?" asked the gently voice of the tree.  
  
"Sasami," Azusa moaned sadly, "my little Sasami... She had her change and I was not there. Could not be there, even after the fact. She has no interest in the throne, mother, and I will not force her. I have failed three children, I will not destroy another's life."  
  
"Azusa," Anomi asked sternly, causing him to look up at the old tree. "What is the first duty of an emperor, Azusa?"  
  
"To enact the will of the people," he answered automatically, the response coming from centuries of trying to do just that.  
  
"And the second?"  
  
"To ensure the people's safety."  
  
"The third?"  
  
"To provide for the continued existence of the empire."  
  
"And of a husband, Azusa? What is the first duty for him?"  
  
"To ensure the happiness of his partners."  
  
"And of a father?"  
  
"To provide for the welfare of his child," Azusa sighed, looking down at the clear water once again.  
  
"And of a son, Azusa?"  
  
"To heed the wisdom of his elders."  
  
"You have many duties," Anomi asked quietly, "don't you, my son?"  
  
"I have tried," Azusa moaned, sinking in on himself, "I have tried so hard, mother. To be a good emperor, to be a good husband, to be a good father... But I have failed at them all, and now I suppose I am not even a good son, is that what you are saying mother?"  
  
"No Azusa," Anomi answered gently, a soft breeze blowing from nowhere to dry his tears. "You are a fine son, and a better emperor than you will ever know. Your wives love you, and your children respect you."  
  
"Respect?" Azusa asked incredulously. "Respect, Anomi? Me? They have no respect for me, and I deserve none. What have I done to them? My son.. my Namaeto... I loved him, Anomi..."  
  
"Perhaps it is not too late, Azusa? Must you bear another burden on your soul?"  
  
"What can I do? The damage is done, mother. I cannot countermand the liann, that is one of the oldest laws."  
  
"All laws have an exception, Azusa. That is a law older even than the liann."  
  
"What is it then?" Azusa pleaded, "What solution is there for me? Tell me mother, I beg of you!"  
  
"I can not, my son," Anomi sighed, "I am only a memory embodied by this tree, little more than a dream. Even if I know the answer that you seek, I may not so alter the course of events."  
  
"Then if I may not set right that which has gone before, I will provide for the future," Azusa said with grim determination, rising to his feet. "I will make her see that I care."  
  
"You will do what is necessary," Anomi replied confidently.  
  
"No," Azusa shook his head and turned away from the tree, staring out at the limited infinity of the Inner Chamber. "I have done the necessary for sixty centuries, mother. Now, I will do what is right."  
  
Azusa focused his mind and, with a single step, the great doors rushed to meet him.   
  
A line of green glowed bright at the center of Azusa's forehead and the doors swung wide to give him passage. When Puer and Toka saw him approaching they merely bowed, waiting until he had passed to rise. It was their sworn duty to defend the life of the emperor, even to their own deaths, but an etae in his aspect commands the honor of self defense.  
  
* * *  
  
Azaka, who was less absorbed in what was going on on the television screen- admittedly because he had seen it three times already-than his partner turned at the sound of the broom-closet door clicking open.  
  
When Tenchi and Ryouko stepped through he tilted slightly, bonking Kamadake's nodori to get the Guardian's attention. Kamadake rotated with a disgruntled, "What is it Azaka? I was just- Oh, you're back early from..." Kamadake trailed off when his sensor array registered Tenchi and Ryouko's clothes. Or, rather, their utter lack thereof.  
  
"May we be of assistance?" Azaka asked innocently.  
  
Ryouko bit her lip to stifle a giggle and Tenchi flushed deep red, but his only move was to stand in front of Ryouko, blocking her from the Guardians' vision.  
  
"I.. I don't think that will be necessary."  
  
"What're you two up to, anyway?" Ryouko asked, peeking around Tenchi's shoulder.  
  
"Oh, it is nothing," Kamadake assured the blushing couple. "We were merely-"  
  
"Oh God," moaned a high-pitched voice from the television, "it's so Big!"  
  
"We will not tell," Kamadake promised soberly, "if you do not."  
  
* * *  
  
"May I sit down?"  
  
Aeka nodded primly, sliding over on the bench to make room.  
  
"I listened to your conversation with mother Funaho," Aeka stated simply, feeling it was best to simply get it out in the open beforehand.  
  
"I know," Katsuhito sighed. "I heard you breathing in the hallway. She probably knows by now as well, or did you truly believe it is possible to make a movement in this palace without our parents' knowledge?"  
  
Aeka blushed, realizing she had not even considered that her mother was the head of Jurain intelligence. Of Course she would know that her daughter came into her apartments that day.  
  
"Yousho-"  
  
"Please, Aeka, Katsuhito. My face has changed again, but I remain the man you have known for the past four years."  
  
"Katsuhito, then," Aeka agreed. "I have so many questions..."  
  
"I do not believe I will have answers to them all," Katsuhito said seriously, leaning on his knees to stare at the flowing waters of the stream. "I will try though. Start with that which weighs most heavily on your mind, that it may be dealt with first."  
  
Aeka paused. She knew what that would be, there was absolutely no question about that, but how should she ask it? Angry? Curious? Sad?  
  
Aeka chose a middle ground, asking neutrally, "Why did you never tell me of your plans for Tenchi?"  
  
"My plans for Tenchi," Katsuhito echoed sadly, bowing his head. "Aeka, would you believe me if I told you I did not know?"  
  
Aeka frowned. "Did not know what?"  
  
"Anything, I suppose," Katsuhito sighed, leaning back on the bench and closing his eyes. "This is the conversation I've dreaded for more than a year now Aeka. I knew it would come eventually, and I suppose that is why I told mother my story while you stood there, listening. It was easier that way, with you not knowing I was speaking to you and me able to pretend I was talking only to mother."  
  
"Katsuhito," Aeka asked unsurely, "what are you talking about? What did you not know?"  
  
"When I left here, seven centuries ago, I chased a demon, Aeka. I did not know the truth of Ryouko's situation, I only knew that this creature had attacked my home. When I sealed her, with Tsunami's help, into the cave that would be her prison.. I had only ever seen her as a demon. I knew she was a woman, under the demon-mask, but I had never Seen this woman."  
  
"What.. what are you saying?"  
  
Katsuhito sighed heavily before continuing. "When Tsunami showed me that I should guide Tenchi to release Ryouko, I knew that they would have some sort of relationship with one another. I saw them pushing back the darkness, side by side. But imagine it, Aeka, if you can. I had seen Ryouko only as a demon, a warrior-goddess with no apparent emotion but sadistic hatred. I knew, logically, that she would not act the same when Tenchi released her.. but how could I know she would love him? How?"  
  
"I-" Aeka paused, thinking the matter over, "I suppose you could not."  
  
"Exactly so," Katsuhito agreed. "There was no way for me to know how she would act when Tenchi released her, or even what role they would play together. I expected them to fight as allies.. perhaps even as friends. But lovers? The demon woman who tried to destroy my home, in love with my grandson? It would have seemed absurd."  
  
"You mean," Aeka asked, realization dawning, "you did not intend Tenchi to be with her?"  
  
"No," Katsuhito sighed, "I did not. Not in that way. Perhaps Tsunami did, but if so I was her unwitting pawn."  
  
"But why, then, did you never tell me? When you saw that she loved him, why did you never tell me that they were destined for one another?"  
  
"I did not realize, Aeka. Call me a foolish old man, but I did not see it. I thought her interest in him to be a game of some kind, an amusement after her long imprisonment. I did not expect Tenchi to reciprocate her apparently shallow feelings, and he gave no particular sign of doing so. When you arrived... When you arrived, I did not realize your feelings for him either. I thought you might, perhaps, be transferring some of your feeling for me onto my grandson."  
  
"Nonsense," Aeka denied, "I love.. loved him."  
  
"I know that now," Katsuhito agreed, "but I did not see it then. When finally I did realize that your emotion was real, it was far too late to stop you. Had I told you, any time in the year before Tenchi's twenty-first birthday, that you were not meant to be with him.. would you have listened to me?"  
  
Aeka was silent, struggling with herself over the answer to that question. Katsuhito went on, "To tell the truth, Aeka, I held hope for some time that Tenchi would choose you. My grandson, emperor of Jurai.. that would have truly been something."  
  
"So that's it then? You turned a blind eye to Ryouko's feelings and rationalized mine until it was too late, then were too.. to cowardly to tell me?" Aeka asked, shocked and angered by the wholly unexpected explanation.  
  
"No.. that is not all of it," Katsuhito sighed, "there is another thing."  
  
"What?" Aeka asked, not entirely sure she wanted to know.  
  
"I say that I held hope for some time, and that is true. But that hope faded, Aeka. I wanted the choice to be Tenchi's, when he finally made it. Anything else would not have been right, and he would not have been happy with a decision forced upon him. But when the time came that a decision loomed... I know for whom I hoped, and though it pains me to admit it, it was not you."  
  
Aeka frowned deeply. First to discover that there was no principle behind Tenchi's relationship with Ryouko... She had hoped to find that there was a Reason that the two were together. Not that she resented Ryouko for it; how could she, seeing how happy she made Tenchi? But Aeka desperately needed a reason for the pain she felt, some way to justify all that had happened in the past year. She had so desired Tsunami or Katsuhito to simply tell her, 'I'm sorry, Aeka, it simply had to be that way.' But neither did. And now.. now Katsuhito was saying, what? That he Wanted Ryouko with Tenchi, despite that there was no great cosmic need within his awareness? That he chose the other woman just as surely as had Tenchi?  
  
"Why, Katsuhito? What did I do? I.. I understand why Tenchi chose her, I think, but why would you want him to make that choice?"  
  
Katsuhito sighed. "This.. this will sound cruel, Aeka. I know it will and I know no way to soften the blow, so I will speak it bluntly.   
  
"Four months before Tenchi's birthday, Ryouko came to me. Each of you have come to me before, on several occasions, asking my blessing to pursue Tenchi. You know that I have granted it equally, the choice had to be his, not mine. I expected as much of Ryouko that time as well, for she has never, before or since, come to speak with me alone of her own volition.   
  
"She thanked me, in the round-about way that she had then, before the changes she has undergone since, for allowing her to stay in my home. She also thanked me for my actions seven hundred years ago. That was unexpected, Aeka. There are few things enough that can surprise me, but I would never have believed Ryouko would thank me for locking her away in that cave. But she did. She thanked me for it, and said that were it not for me she would never have found Tenchi and likely never have known happiness.   
  
"Then she came to the part I had expected, saying that with Tenchi's birthday coming she wished my blessing to enact a scheme she had concocted-those were not the words she used, of course-to finally win his heart. I was doubtful, but she assured me it could not possibly cause him, or anyone else but herself, any harm. She said it would show him, she hoped, how she really felt and make him understand. It sounded safe enough, so I agreed cautiously.  
  
"She asked me to wish her luck, and include her plans in my prayers. At the time I still felt, at least a little, that you would make the better wife for my grandson. So I was merely polite, wished her luck, and tried to send her on her way. I expected that to be the end of it, Ryouko has had her little plots before and none have amounted to much. The same could be said of any of you.  
  
"But then.. as she was moving to the door.. she paused. I could see the indecision in her posture, and when she turned back to face me it was in an aspect I had only rarely seen her assume. She was very serious, very reserved, not at all the woman I thought I knew. Very much, in fact, the woman I have come to know since. I think it will take another millenia of life to make me forget her words then."  
  
Katsuhito sighed and touched his face absently, as though to push up the glasses he no longer wore. When he spoke again his eyes were closed and his voice pitched low. "'Katsuhito,' she said, very respectful, but very frank as well, 'I know we aren't friends. I'm not sure we can be, after everything. But I love Tenchi, and I hope you know it.. even if he doesn't. If my plan doesn't work...' She stopped then, looking distraught. I had no idea how to react to her strange mood, so I only waited. 'If it doesn't work,' she continued with new resolve, 'I want him to be happy. I'll go. If after Tenchi's birthday I don't get the kind of response I'm hoping for, I'll leave. If he can't love me, then I'll let him love someone else. I don't know what I'll do.. maybe you should just put me back in the cave.. but I want him to be happy. That's what matters to me now. So if.. if I'm gone one day... I want you to make sure Aeka has him. I can make him happy, I know I can, if he'll let me. But if I can't have him.. she should. She loves him too. But if you Ever tell her I said that, I swear I'll put You in that cave.'" Katsuhito chuckled. "I guess I'm in for a stint in the cave, then."  
  
"Katsuhito--"  
  
He sighed and looked up at Aeka from where he leaned forward on the bench. "I'm sorry, Aeka. I know that is not what you wanted to hear, and I wish I could tell you that I was behind you until the end. If I could ease your pain, I would, but as Tenchi discovered, sometimes truth is its own compassion. Better you feel the sting of it now than hear the hollow echo of gentle words when you find out later."  
  
"But why?" Aeka asked softly. "Why her? I wanted him to be happy too..."  
  
"I know," Katsuhito said gently, touching her knee in cautious comfort. "I know you did, Aeka. But was it more important to you than having him? For four years you girls chased my grandson around, all of you clamouring your love for him. But how often did you do something just for him? You all did things for him, but always there was the intent that it get you something in return. Ryouko was offering to give up her happiness, the only happiness she had had in five millennia of life, just so he could find his. I'm a sentimental old fool, Aeka, and that touched me. Knowing that she would do that.. I could not help but wish her well. And much as I love you, my sister, I do not think you could have done it. It is no failing, so do not beat yourself for it. Few could do it and I don't count myself among them, but when Ryouko said she would leave Tenchi rather than force him to suffer alone I belived her. There is a depth of love shown in that which I did not think she posessed before then.   
  
"And though I knew how much you loved him as well, Aeka, I knew Tenchi could only have one of you. He is not Jurain, despite his blood, and he was not raised in a way to permit him to have two wives. Trying to split his heart that way, without a Jurain's outlook, would have torn him horribly. No, Tenchi could only choose one wife, and though I'd hoped secertly for you for years, when the time came I.. I hoped it would be her. I'm sorry, Aeka."  
  
Aeka only shook her head, unable to form a response. There were more questions that she wanted answered, but the answer from the first one left her dumbfounded. Ryouko was going to give him up? If her plan for his birthday had not been the mixed success it was, he would be hers now?  
  
*But it never could have been,* Aeka realized sadly. *I didn't just barely lose him as I've believed.. he was hers all along. He did not love her then, but she's loved him since before I even knew he existed. She's loved him nearly all his life. I was a fool to try to take him away, and could I have lived with myself had she given him up because of me? How would I feel, if it were me? How would it be if I were not Jurain, and I had not been raised with the knowledge that I might eventually come to be married to a man with another wife? I half expected to have Ryouko was a sister-wife one day, and maybe I could even have loved her the way mother Funaho loves mother Misaki.. with enough centuries... But she's not Jurain, and neither is Tenchi, really. Sasami is right, he's a nashim. No matter how much I wanted him to be my tatam and take his place as the first prince, he's always been nashim. Ryouko couldn't have been happy in a realtionship like that, and neither could Tenchi. I was selfish, and I nearly destroyed two lives because of it.*  
  
"Do not abuse yourself over this, Aeka," Katsuhito warned, startling the princess. He smiled gently. "No, I am not reading your mind, sister. But I know you well enough to know that look. You are thinking that you are a horrible person for what you've done, am I right?" Aeka nodded weakly. "Stop then, because you are not. You knew no better than I what the future would hold. Following your heart is no vice, Aeka. I'm sorry that it turned out as it did for you, more sorry than I can express. You have had a great deal of pain in your life, and I wish with all my being that I could take some of it away, but such is not in my power." He squeezed her knee gently and said, "Just remember that Tenchi does love you, as do we all. You're part of a family, Aeka, an important part. Whatever happens, we will always be family."  
  
"Thank you," Aeka sighed, gently touching his hand. "I can not help feeling sorry for myself Katsuhito, but I'm glad to have a family. I wish it were enough, though, to fill this.. this hole."  
  
"I could tell you you'll find someone else," Katsuhito observed, "but that's not what you want to hear.   
  
Aeka nodded. That was not what she wanted to hear at all. *Why must I feel this way? Longing for him was bad enough when I only had to fear that he might be taken by Ryouko. Knowing that he is already spoken for and Still desiring him...* Aeka sighed and shook her head sadly. She hoped those feelings would fade, in time.  
  
A shadow loomed suddenly, casting their bench into darkness. Aeka looked up to find Azusa standing there on the path, eclipsing the artificial sun of the gardens.   
  
"F.. father?"  
  
"Aeka," Azusa greeted. He turned to Katsuhito and stared at him for a long, intense moment before asking, "Yousho?"  
  
"Please father," Katsuhito asked quietly, "call me Katsuhito. That has been my name for nearly all my life."  
  
Azusa stared at him in silence, then closed his eyes and nodded. "Very well.. Katsuhito. You have changed, since last I saw you, and I am sure that there is much about your time on Earth that I would like to discuss with you. But now I must speak with Aeka, if you will leave us for the moment?"  
  
Katsuhito stared at Azusa and Aeka could almost hear him trying to decide what to make of the changes in their father. Finally he rose and bowed, bidding her farewell and promising that he would speak with Azusa soon.  
  
When he was gone Azusa stepped closer, frowning down at her. Aeka waited nervously for his words, but none came. Finally she sighed and said, "I will not apologize, father. If you have come expecting me to regret what I said to you, you have wasted your time. I do not regret it, and I will take none of it back."  
  
"The lesson of pain will be stricken from those taught the House Jurai," Azusa said seriously, ignoring her words as surely as if he had not heard them at all. "From this day forward, none shall learn that lesson. If you so choose, you may not take the lessons of the Second Change when your time arrives. You will be expected to learn all those things which they embody, but the method of your learning will be at your discretion. This choice shall henceforth be open to all members of the House, and when such time comes that a suitable system can be enacted, to all citizens of Jurai.   
  
"You seem to be aware, somehow, that I have had two sons. I hope that you can believe that I regret what happened to Namaeto. I acted as was demanded by tradition, and my hand was fueled by rage. Not a day has passed in more than a thousand years that I have not thought of him, and for decades I cursed the throne that would drive me to.. to kill my son. I can not blame Yo.. Katsuhito for deserting us as he did, and if he wishes it I will reinstate him in the House. I have been very wrong, Aeka, and for that I am sorry.   
  
"I do not know that you realize what it takes for me to speak this way. I am emperor of all Jurai, and for nearly six thousand years I have been the ultimate authority, answerable only to the Council, and then only when I so chose. But you are right, Aeka. You are my daughter and I was a man before I was a ruler. I am not so deluded as to believe you will simply forgive me my sins, but I hope that in time you may come to understand me and understand that my actions are not what I may have wished. And I will never, Never forgive myself for failing my children, Aeka. I have failed all of you, in one way or another, and should I live another six millennia I do not know that I can make up for that."  
  
With that he turned and strode purposefully out of the garden, leaving Aeka sitting on the bench equally as stunned at his pronouncements as at her brother's words.  
  
* * *  
  
"This is just too weird," Dante muttered, waving to the old man as he tottered out the door, purchases in hand. "I mean, when they said exchange program I thought, 'Oh, sure, It'd be nice to go see Europe.' I never expected to be sent to a country where I can't even speak the language for Christ's sake."  
  
"I don't know," Randal said absently, flipping idly through a manga from the adult rack, "It's not so bad. I can't believe you got Veronica to come with you."  
  
"Wasn't that hard. I just took her out to dinner, proceeded to tell her that I, Dante Hicks, am a complete and total idiot and that she would be a goddess if she consented to continue our relationship by accompanying me to mystical Japan. After the fourth, 'I'm an idiot' she was all for it."  
  
Randal snorted and flipping the magazine around, "Now I ask you, what's the point of pornography without any exposed genitalia? I mean, really, the whole point of pornography is the proverbial 'money shot.' But what fun is the money shot without any lead up? If I want to see a guy cum, I can go in the bathroom by myself. This is like giving me an empty pie pan as an advertisement for dessert."  
  
Dante ignored his friend's commentary and said, "Now you want unbelievable, I can't believe you actually gave your extra plane ticket to Bob."  
  
Randal shrugged, searching one more through the manga for some elusive female anatomy. "Had to give it to somebody, and the Casa de Randal has not had any women visitors in recent memory."  
  
"Gee, I wonder if the fact that your nose is constantly between a pair of two dimensional legs has something to do with this startling revelation."'  
  
"Hey, don't knock it. Any chance to have my nose between legs, two-dimensional or otherwise, is a chance I am willing to pursue. Where is Bob anyway?"  
  
Dante shrugged. "Probably out peddling drugs to young Japanese children. Who'd have thought Jay had enough money to fly himself out here?"  
  
"With all the stuff he sells?" Randal asked, looking up. "I think that was a forgone conclusion. Besides, can you imagine Bob without Jay tagging along?"  
  
Dante chuckled. "No, I guess not. Do you think those two really...?"  
  
"Who? Jay and Bob?" Randal asked, raising his eyebrows in disbelief. "I could believe it of Jay, but not Bob. He's straight as they come, my friend. Why, not the other day we were enjoying some of the quality local porn on my hotel room's TV." Randal looked at the manga in disgust and tossed it in the general direction of the rack. "The kind With genitalia, I might add."  
  
Dante shook his head and said, "I can't believe you watch that crap. With the tentacles and everything? American porno is bad enough."  
  
"Humph," Randal snorted, "this from a man who could not even enjoy the pleasures of hermaphrodites. I tell you, Dante, it's a sure sign of over enthusiastic moral rectitude when you can't enjoy chicks with dicks-"  
  
"Hey," Dante interrupted, pointing at the Quick Stop door, "check these two out."  
  
Randal turned to watch the pair enter the store. A man and a woman, the man tall for being Japanese and the woman with striking cyan hair. They were wearing what looked like formal attire out of one of the manga from the rack below the one Randal was so recently perusing. They proceeded directly to the back of the store, searching amongst the selection of sake.  
  
"Wonder what they're dressed up for," Dante asked rhetorically.  
  
"Don't know," Randal answered, watching them, "but I must say I've never considered the effect of cyan hair and an evening gown on a woman. I stand impressed."  
  
"Shh," Dante hissed, "here they come."  
  
The couple approached the counter and placed three bottles of sake next to the register, the man rattling something off in rapid Japanese. Dante gave him his best I-have-no-idea-what-you-just-said grin and scanned the alcohol into the register. "Will that be all?"  
  
The man spoke again, it sounded basically the same as the first time, and still as incomprehensible. He gestured at the rack behind the counter.  
  
"What did he say?" Dante asked out of the corner of his mouth.  
  
"I think he said he wants a pack of cigarettes," Randal answered aloud, looking wounded at Dante's shocked look. "What? They can't understand me anyway. And why be embarrassed that you don't understand anything they're saying?"  
  
Dante rolled his eyes and reached for the most popular brand of cigarettes, only to be stopped by the man in the robe. He jabbered again in Japanese and Dante's grin faltered a bit.  
  
"Oh," Randal exclaimed, "condoms, not cigarettes. I think he said he wants those over there." Randal pointed and Dante gestured demonstratively toward the package. The man and woman nodded in unison and he held up a finger. She nudged him and he added a second finger to the gesture.  
  
When the transaction was complete and the odd couple gone Randal approached the counter, leaning against it, and watched them cross between pools of streetlight-shed radiance.  
  
"So where'd you learn Japanese?" Dante asked, still watching them.  
  
"I told you watching local pornography would come in handy," Randal answered absently.  
  
"Well what do you know. Your obsession with tenticular penetration of underage Japanese cartoon women finally proves itself advantageous."  
  
"Anime," Randal corrected, going back to the manga rack. "They get really annoyed if you call 'em cartoons."  
  
"Bah, give me Star Wars any day. Now Leia in a metal bikini, that's entertainment."  
  
"Yeah right," Randal muttered, searching hopefully through a thick magazine, "you know you have a thing for JarJar, you sick bastard."  
  
"Oh yeah," Dante declaimed sarcastically, "meesa just can't get enough."  
  
"Ahha!" Randal exclaimed, holding the open manga up triumphantly, "I've struck shaven gold!"  
  



	4. meanwhile on jurai

glass4.html

** Note **  
** This is chapter four of Reflections of a Shattered Glass. If you've not read chapters 1 - 3, you are in the wrong place.  
** A word of WARNING. This chapter contains strongly adult content. If you have never had a problem with my stories before (and especially if you have read Myths and Legends) then there should be no problems.  
** Happy reading,  
**--Krin (krin@hotmail.com mailto:krin@hotmail.com)  
**http://www.geocities.com/mode6.geo/fanfic/  
** /Note **  


  
Reflections of a Shattered Glass  


  


-- four --  


  


meanwhile on jurai  


  
  
Vianna paused, glancing back down the hallway. She knew she had not been followed, and was fairly sure she had not been observed. It was impossible to be entirely sure, short of a molecular-level scan of the surrounding area. She could do that, of course, but her movements were not sufficiently important to warrant that sort of effort.  
  
*Why does visiting Misaki always put me so on edge?* Vianna wondered, running a hand through her short pink hair. *She is only a woman, and has been as much a mother as I have ever had. I should feel...love, I suppose, for her. Not...fear.*  
  
Vianna would never admit aloud that she feared the empress. She would be hard pressed to admit she feared Anything, much less another human. But considering entering Misaki's presence never failed to send a chill down her spine.  
  
Taking a few steps further, Vianna could hear the Guardians breathing. She stood absolutely still, slowing her own breathing and heartbeat until they did not interfere with her senses. After seven hundred seconds of listening-Vianna kept careful count of the time, even when she was otherwise occupied-she heard the tick of wood on metal.  
  
*Sloppy,* Vianna thought sourly, *they make enough noise to wake me from a sound sleep. It is no wonder Misaki began training us, the Guardians are growing inefficient in their old age. No matter, I must speak with her.*  
  
Vianna strode silently forward, making no special effort to conceal herself. Even so, the Guardians did not notice her until she was nearly upon them. She knew she had a way of blending into the surroundings, even when not trying, and used it often to her advantage.   
  
The Guardians snapped to attention, crossing their staves over the door to the Empress' apartments.   
  
"I will speak with her," Vianna stated.   
  
*The best way to deal with Guardians is to show them who is in charge,* Vianna reminded herself. *They expect everyone to grovel at their feet as though they were the empower himself. Stand up to them and they don't know what to do.*  
  
The Guardians frowned. It was almost always the same pair when she came to Misaki's chambers, but she could not remember their names. The one on the right was Po something, she thought.  
  
"The Empress has ordered she not be disturbed, she is engaged in preparations for the evening meal."  
  
Vianna tossed her head and sighed. "Are you truly That behind on events? The meal has been cancelled, I learned that much on my way here Sasami's quarters."  
  
The Guardians frowned again, the elder one speaking this time. "Your position demands we respect you, but we need not tolerate such impropriety-"  
  
"I will speak with her," Vianna repeated, cutting off the Guardian's protest, "now."  
  
"We will announce you," Po-something said, "you will wait here."  
  
"No," Vianna disagreed, "I will see her. She is expecting me." Technically that was a lie, Vianna had no reason to believe that the Empress was expecting a visit from her. She had not, in fact, requested her presence in some five centuries. Somehow, though, Vianna always seemed to arrive in her presence when the Empress required her, and Misaki never seemed surprised when she came to her unannounced. And every single time, she had to put up with the hard-headed Guardians.  
  
Vianna stepped toward the door, reaching up to push the staves out of her way. The Guardians tried to protest again but Vianna touched the door, sliding it open. She flashed a grin at Po-something, thinking not for the first time that he was kind of cute, in a clean-cut sort of way. If Guardians were not all such egotistical, male-centric pigs she might even consider pursuing him. But they were, so she would not. *Must All men be such idiots?*  
  
Misaki was sitting at a desk against the right wall, wearing a deep blue kimono decorated with brightly colored flowers. She was doing...something on the desktop. At first Vianna thought she was painting, but after a moment she realized that Misaki's hand motions were too rhythmic for that. She appeared to be writing. On paper. With a brush.  
  
Vianna slid the door shut, letting it click audibly. Misaki did not respond immediately. Instead, she continued writing until she reached the bottom of the page, then carefully set down her brush and turned to look up at her guest.  
  
"Vianna," Misaki greeted cordially, tipping her head in the pink-haired woman's direction.  
  
"Misaki," Vianna returned, utterly motionless besides her lips.  
  
"You have come for a reason," Misaki observed, folding her hands in her lap.  
  
"I have," Vianna agreed. "I am here about my Japanese tutor."  
  
"There is some problem?" Misaki asked, tilting her head curiously. "I found him to be quite fluent, and he came with the highest recommendations from the University as a teacher."  
  
"He is efficient," Vianna admitted. "But he is too slow. I must learn more quickly."  
  
"He is not matching your tutelage to your progress? Have you requested that he give you more challenging material?"  
  
"No," Vianna said, shaking her head. "His curriculum matches my development speed, but that speed is not satisfactory."  
  
"That sounds like your failing, Vianna, not his."  
  
"Do not bait me, Misaki," Vianna said angrily. "I already speak six languages fluently, learning this backward tongue should not be a challenge for me."  
  
Misaki frowned. "It is the first tongue of my sister, and quite beautiful in its way. Many of its rhythms are similar to Jurain. And I would caution you against excessive boldness, Vianna."  
  
"You taught me to bow to no one," Vianna reminded the empress. "And Japanese feels brutish on my lips. It does not flow the way Jurain does."  
  
"No," Misaki agreed, "it does not, but in its spoken form it is not a backward language. And I would remind you that I taught you that you do not Need to bow to anyone. That does not mean you should hold no respect. In many situations it is to your advantage to give the expected reaction. As with Ponua and Vess."  
  
"Backward or not," Vianna insisted, ignoring Misaki's comments on propriety for the moment, "I am learning too slowly. If I am to converse in that language, I must attain fluency more quickly."  
  
"Then work harder," Misaki suggested.  
  
"That is not good enough. The Guardians laugh at my attempts to speak the language when they do not believe I am listening. Even the palace staff chuckle."  
  
"You wish them to show more respect?" Misaki asked, raising an eyebrow.  
  
"Yes," Vianna agreed. "It is degrading, being unable to do something even the simplest scullery maid can achieve with a few moments under the Lessons."  
  
"You know why that is impossible for you, Vianna."  
  
Vianna nodded curtly. "There still must be some way. Is not Jurai the greatest scientific power in the galaxy? How is it that I must learn Japanese in such an awkward manner?"  
  
"There is a way," Misaki agreed. "Perhaps you will remember your...special training?"  
  
"You do not mean--"  
  
Misaki nodded. "Yes. That is the only means available. If you feel that this is so important, then you should be willing to take the consequences. The decision is yours."  
  
Vianna frowned thoughtfully, thinking back to the looks she had gotten when attempting to speak Japanese in public. The way Mataeo and Ai struggled to understand her. The stifled grins from Guardians and palace staff alike, and the giggles voiced when she was out of sight. Was putting an end to that disgrace worth this? Vianna shook her head, the question was pointless. She knew the answer to that even before she approached Misaki's chambers.  
  
"Do it," Vianna said firmly, voice clear of the nervousness she refused to allow herself to feel.  
  
Misaki nodded, rising from her desk. She went to an old globe of Jurai, carved of wood and carefully painted. *Probably by hand,* Vianna thought. *That would be like Misaki. It must be ancient; the creator depicted Jurai as a perfect sphere. And the continents extend too far toward the poles.*  
  
Misaki's fingers danced across the globe, touching here and pressing there. Bits of mountains rose and fell under her fingertips, the surface of the globe sliding around like a puzzle box. After a few moments of the empress' ministrations, a sharp click emerged from within the object and the upper hemisphere tilted back. Within, the globe was mostly hollow, leaving space for the box which Misaki reverently removed. She carried it to the desk, setting the finely polished light-brown wooden case down well away from her ink jar.  
  
There was a small metal plate inset on the upper surface, surrounded by delicate carvings that Vianna could not make out from across the room. To this plate Misaki touched a fingertip, pressing it there for a few seconds before moving her hands to the latches. She twisted and pressed in a manner that looked simple, but which Vianna's trained eye judged to be the key to yet another combination lock of some sort. The box popped open silently and Misaki tilted the lid back, revealing a wooden cup and a thick crystal vial resting in a form-fitting setting of deep purple felt.   
  
The empress removed the cup first. It was of traditional Jurain design with a wide, nearly spherical bulb supported by three vine-carved tendrils leading to a separate base. Vianna noted that Misaki touched it only by the short supporting pieces, not by the base or the bulb. Once the cup was resting upon the desk Misaki turned to the vial, lifting it with all the care of an explosives expert with a live detonator. She lifted the capping seal away and poured the contents into the cup while muttering steadily in the old tongue. Vianna spoke about as much of that language as any scholar not specifically studying dead languages, but could catch only one word in a dozen.  
  
When the vial was empty, all the thick, clear liquid it had contained having been poured into the cup, Misaki re-capped it and placed it back in the box. She then opened her desk drawer, removing a long, thin-bladed knife and a cloth thick with red and gold embroidery. The empress tilted her head back, opening her mouth wide. Half the blade vanished between her lips, emerging tinted red with blood. Misaki wiped it clean with the cloth, then replaced both in the drawer. She was still muttering in the old tongue, but her words were slurred now. She lifted the cup and turned, walking toward Vianna.  
  
The female warrior tried to relax, knowing what would come next. When Misaki asked if she remembered the procedure, a thin trickle of blood escaping the corner of her lips to curve down her chin, Vianna nodded.   
  
Misaki bowed her head, holding the cup up nearly at chin level and midway between herself and Vianna. Her words shifted, slipping in and out of the language most Jurains never heard outside the Inner Chamber: the voices of times past, the tongue of gods and trees. When Misaki looked back up there were flecks of silver dancing in her eyes and she seemed lit by some unseen light. With a final declaration in the language no mortal had spoken in hundreds of thousands of years the queen tipped the cup to her lips, draining the thick syrup within. Her cheeks bulging, Misaki dropped the cup to clatter to the stone floor. She grabbed Vianna by the face with both hands, pulling the woman closer.  
  
Vianna relaxed her jaw and opened her mouth when Misaki pushed her hands together. The queen leaned closer, pressing her mouth to the warrior's, and parted her lips. The viscous, bitter, blood-tainted tree sap flowed into Vianna's mouth from Misaki's, seeming to force itself down her throat. Vianna called up all the discipline she could summon, suppressing the reflex to gag on the awful concoction and refusing to allow her throat to constrict.  
  
When Misaki pulled away, holding Vianna's jaw to keep the woman's mouth shut should she lose control and attempt to vomit the sap back out, she wiped her lips delicately. The tree sap still on her face crystallized as Vianna watched, flaking and falling away in glittering shards. She could feel it doing the same in her trachea, forming a solid block of crystalline matter that prevented her from breathing and made her muscles scream with a desire to contract and force the invading presence out of her body. Vianna held on, running her mind through the disciplinary exercises she had learned over the past seven centuries to keep her body from reacting as it wished. Her heart slowed and her body's demand for oxygen lessened.   
  
*One thousand six, one thousand seven, one thousand...*  
  
In the two thousand seconds it took for the crystal of tree sap to dissolve, its mass absorbed through the tissue of her throat and passed into her bloodstream, Vianna began to fear she would never breath again. It was a horribly illogical fear. She knew she would breath again and had been through the ritual on two previous occasions. She could even Feel the blockage dissolving, the song of the trees singing stronger and stronger in her veins as it did. Yet the fear remained. When finally she drew a breath-through her nose, since Misaki was still holding her mouth firmly closed-her lungs felt as though they were aflame. Misaki released her and Vianna gasped deeply, drawing one long, ragged breath after another until finally she felt sated. Her heart beat back up to its normal speed and the sluggish pace her thoughts had taken thinned to her usual lucidity.   
  
"It work to be having done?" Vianna asked cautiously in Japanese, then frowned deeply. "This, to be what is? Ritual, yours, to work having not!"  
  
"It takes time," Misaki explained, retrieving her cup and taking it back to the box. She wiped it clean carefully with the same cloth she had used on the knife, then replaced it beside the vial. "Your mind must grow used to your new memories. They are not grafted seamlessly into place as with the Lessons and must be incorporated into the rest of your being. In three hours you will speak Japanese as well as I do."  
  
Vianna nodded, trying to focus her mind on thinking solely in Japanese. She found that doing so often helped in acquiring a new language, though the effort left her casual thoughts occurring in a complicated jumble of tongues. Much as she disliked Japanese, Vianna supposed that words and grammatical patterns from it would soon be appearing in her normal thoughts. *So much effort for such a backward little world.*  
  
"The cramps will begin soon," Misaki cautioned, closing the lid of her wooden case and carrying it toward the globe.  
  
"Cra-"  
  
Vianna did not finish the first word of her query before a sudden flower of agony had blossomed in her torso. It spread slowly, sending angry tendrils of pain along her extremities while remaining a white-hot presence somewhere near her stomach.  
  
"You...poisoned...me," Vianna gasped accusingly. One shaking hand found its way to the handle of her sword, pulling it free of its restraining loops with the blind strength of anger despite the pain. She leveled it at the empress and focused her will, twisting the Jurain energy ambient in the air around the blade. Glittering silver flames, looking as much like moving wisps of leaded glass as they did like fire, shimmered into life around the wooden sword. The air hissed violently in its presence, the bonds holding molecules together in the atmosphere dissolving under its contact. A shimmering aura of blue built up quickly around the blade, all but hiding the flames; the result of energy released by the fragmenting chemical bonds.  
  
Misaki laughed once, a brief bark of surprised humor. "Do not be a fool, Vianna," she scolded, tilting the upper half of the globe back into place. "If I wished you dead your soul would have been on its way to Conjoinment even before your foot touched the floor inside my doorway."  
  
Vianna blinked. The pain was easing, slowly, but that was not the cause for her surprise. Her sword, grasped quite firmly in her hand until a moment before, was now in Misaki's possession. The flames and aura were gone, leaving only a length of sword-shaped wood pointed at the warrior woman's forehead. She would have been willing to swear that Misaki had not moved.  
  
"I was forced to transfer a fair number of memories into you, Vianna. Language is a complex thing with many, many interconnections throughout your mind. Your brain is now trying to adjust to those connections, and to the fact that some parts of your memory suggest that your body is not put together the way that it actually Is. As you grow acclimatized to the new memories, the cramps will cease."  
  
A new flare of pain erupted in Vianna's left shoulder, but she was better prepared for it this time and merely winced.   
  
"You may also experience some residual memories that were unavoidably transferred with the language," Misaki warned, tucking the sword under her arm and returning to her desk. "I trust that you will keep them to yourself."  
  
As though summoned by the empress' suggestion a flash of memory flickered through Vianna's mind. Empress Funaho lay reclining on a sun-dappled orange blanket. Above her stretched the welcoming branches of mundane trees and the Empower himself knelt at her side. He had a cup in each hand, one proffered to...Vianna supposed it would be toward Misaki. He smiled and laughed, then the moment ended and the memory retreated into the annals of Vianna's mind, no more or less obtrusive than any of her own.  
  
"I always have," Vianna agreed.  
  
The sword's familiar weight hung at her back again and Vianna realized it was no longer in the empress' hand. Had Misaki really moved that quickly, or was it some sort of illusion? Was she tampering with her memory? Vianna shook her head. However the empress performed her magic tricks, her point was made quite clearly.  
  
"Go, now," Misaki commanded, "I have no further use for you."  
  
Vianna turned angrily, not even sure why she was upset. The pain, perhaps? Or Misaki's demonstration of just how much Vianna did not know?   
  
"Vianna?" Misaki asked, causing the woman to pause in her path toward the door.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Is there anything else you wished to tell me?"  
  
"No," Vianna replied, taking another step.  
  
"You will not lie to me again, Vianna. I took great risks in training you and your sisters as I have, do not make me regret them."  
  
*Lie?* Vianna wondered, then realized her error. *Sasami's message... I forgot.*  
  
"Misaki, I am sorry. I forgot that-"  
  
"Speak with me in four days," Misaki interrupted curtly. "Before my daughters leave Jurai. And Vianna? See that you do not forget."  
  
Vianna made no response, only went to the door and opened it. Misaki would know that her student would attend her, there was no need to tell her that she would obey the order.   
  
*The princesses will leave Jurai again?* Vianna wondered. *Back to Earth, most likely. With that impudent little boy who wore the robes of a nashim. I wonder if it is true, what they say of him. It would be interesting to fight one of the treeborn; that is something I have not done. Though I wonder, would a child of that backward little world fare better than one of the Guardians, no matter what power he might possess?*  
  
  
Misaki held herself carefully until Vianna was gone. Once the warrior woman was well on her way, Misaki slumped against the back rest of her chair and pulled the cloth from her desk drawer with one shaking hand.   
  
*I can not do this many more times,* Misaki thought, dabbing carefully at her newly-pierced tongue. She focused her mind and drew on the power of the trees, slowing the flow of blood and quickening the healing process. The wound would be gone in a matter of hours, but it stung fiercely while it remained. *Each time I perform that ceremony I feel my mind slipping further into the Network. I have maybe a dozen times left before I cannot draw myself back from the trees.*  
  
Misaki sighed and replaced the cloth in the drawer, lifting her brush. She dipped it carefully in the ink, then set it back down on the stand. One thick drop of obsidian dripped onto her blotter, leaving a spreading blotch.  
  
"You will hurry back?" Misaki asked the empty room, her eyes focused into the distance of time.  
  
"I know," Misaki agreed quietly, "but I worry. He has been gone three years, Aeka. We must face the possibility that he is no longer there to be found. Three years without a word."  
  
Misaki nodded to an un-heard response. "Yes, of course. But be careful. And hurry back to us."  
  
Misaki waited while her daughter replied across the centuries, then spoke again the words she had then. "Azaka and Kamadake will protect you. They served Hinoa well for many years."  
  
With a sigh Misaki lowered her head, closing her eyes against tears. "Yes, it is best that you take your sister. She would be so lonely here without you. I am afraid I have not been with her as much as I would like in recent years. With Yousho gone and you after him, I do not know what she would do. But I will miss you so. As will Funaho, and your father."  
  
"Of course he loves you," Misaki said gently. "He knows how important this is to you, that is why he gave permission so readily for you to follow Yousho. But he doesn't want to lose you anymore than I do, Aeka. Azusa... Azusa is not always sure how to tell you how he feels. He has to be strong for the people, you understand that, don't you? He must be so strong all the time... He forgets how to be weak, I think. But he does love you, do not doubt that."  
  
Misaki's eyes opened slowly and she lifted her brush once more. The episode was done and her mind fully back in the present once again. They were a side-effect of the ritual she had just performed, and their frequency was increasing every time she performed it. The trees did not delineate well between points in time and joining her spirit so closely to theirs left her thoughts ranging across the centuries as well. But it was not memories of the past which worried the empress most. No, it was what glimpses she had seen of the future which motivated her actions now.  
  
The brush scratched against the page as Misaki resumed writing. She had not thought she would ever write such a letter, but there were things which must be said that could not be spoken on the soil of Jurai. Her chambers were secure from inspection, even by the eyes of her sister-wife, as were Funaho's own, Azusa's, and the bed-chambers they shared. But anywhere else... It was nearly impossible to tell who may be listening at any time, and it would be dangerous even to call the audience of her letter into her chambers for palaver. None could spy from afar within those walls, true, but there were other ways. There were Always other ways.  
  
* * *  
  
Katsuhito folded the robe and placed it carefully within his newly-acquired luggage case. He was not sure what he would do with the little log-shaped accessory after he returned to Earth. Put it away in a closet somewhere, perhaps. Or give it to one of the girls. But he needed something to transport the clothes he had gained possession of-in one manner or other-since returning to Jurai.   
  
*Really I suppose I should leave them,* Katsuhito considered, running his fingers over the intricate design woven in silver around the sleeve of a purple shirt, one half of a nia. *But it has been a long time since I wore the clothing of Jurai, I had forgotten how comfortable it could be. No one will realize they are not of Earthly manufacture. And it would be simpler to have something fitting to wear the next time I return here.*  
  
Katsuhito chuckled. *A week ago I did not believe that all the devils together could drag me back to Jurai, and now I consider returning again of my own will. When is the last time I made such changes in my life? It has been...sixty-eight years now, since I married her. And fifteen since she left me. I suppose my mourning period is well over, even by Jurain standards. Even after a marriage of centuries we do not mourn more than a decade.   
  
*We. A week within the Palace and I am Jurain again? Nine hundred forty six years, nearly seven hundred of them on Earth. A long life, and I can not honestly say that I would change a moment of it.*  
  
Katsuhito took a long, slender wooden case from atop the pile of clothing he intended to take back to Earth. The case contained a shonekea, a Jurain musical instrument that he had not played in...he could not remember the last time he had played one. It came easily though, with the curved metal flute in his hands. Washuu had bought it for him, somehow having learned that he knew how to play one and demanding he play her a tune.   
  
*Hakubi Washuu,* Katsuhito thought, opening the case and lifting free the gently curving instrument. Odd that he had never realized how much it resembled a katana before. Coincidence? He had not believed in coincidence for centuries.  
  
The case clicked when he closed it, the shonekea safely inside again. *What do I intend with her? When I went to her in the garden I did not even know what I was doing. How long since I took an action without planning it first? Why did it touch me so that she was willing to force me to return to Jurai to save my life?* He knew, of course. It was nearly two thirds of his lifetime ago, but the memories of Jurains are longer than most.  
  
  
"Yousho," Katsuro sighed, resting his bokken against the edge of the porch where he sat. His house rose behind him and Yousho could smell Arai's cooking within. It would be dinner time soon, time to end their sparring for the night.  
  
Yousho put aside his own weapon, sitting beside the elder man on the wooden slats of the porch. "Yes father?"  
  
"Tell me, Yousho. What in this world holds value?"  
  
"Father?" Yousho asked, unsure of the meaning of the question.  
  
"Of all the things in the world," Katsuro expanded, "what is there which proves value? Is it gold and gemstones? Land and title?"  
  
Yousho shook his head. "No. Gold and gemstones vary from place to place. Jade is of value here, but I hear that to the west it is of less importance. Many there see it as no more than another rock. And gold... I have seen palaces gilded base to tip in gold. What is rare in one land is abundant in others."  
  
"Land and title, then?" Katsuro asked.  
  
"No," Yousho denied again. "Can you truly even own land? Land is only yours so long as you can defend it, and one may never truly defend more land than the patch upon which he stands. And title... Title exists at the whim of the local lord, to be bestowed or stripped as he wishes."  
  
"Then what, Yousho?"  
  
Yousho paused and finally shook his head in defeat. "I do not know Father. What Does incur value?"  
  
"Sacrifice, Yousho. What are you willing to give up for a thing? That is what tells you what it is worth."  
  
"Sacrifice?" Yousho asked. "I do not understand."  
  
"When you go to the market, you give the vendor money and he gives you goods. You sacrifice the ability to buy some other thing in order to have This thing. The value of the money is transitory, as you said. It is the sacrifice which is of value. What did you give up for your sword? You may have bought a fine horse or a small piece of land for what you paid to have it made. You sacrificed those things in order to have it, and that is its value to you."  
  
Yousho nodded. "And for this house, you sacrificed having one somewhere else. In order to live in this place, near the river and in view of the mountains, you gave up living nearer town."  
  
Katsuro nodded. "I sacrificed much to have this home, and I have sacrificed to keep it. It is worth a great deal to me, but to others...perhaps not. It is a simple home, not of the finest construction, but it is My home."  
  
Yousho nodded again silently, considering what his wife's father had said.  
  
"And my daughter?" Katsuro asked. "She is your wife, she must be of value to you, no?"  
  
"Yes," Yousho agreed. "I would give my life for her."  
  
"And that is the greatest value," Katsuro agreed. "To give up your life... You sacrifice all that my be in the future for that to which you give it. Men throw their lives away on foolish causes, hoping to gain honor. Honor is important, but is it of that great a value? Every man should have something in his life for which he would sacrifice everything, but finding that thing... It is not as simple as many men believe."  
  
"Father, Yousho, dinner is ready."  
  
Katsuro looked up at his daughter where she stood, framed by lamplight, in the doorway.  
  
"Come Yousho," he said, picking up the bokken and rising to his feet. "Enough philosophy for one night, time to eat."  
  
  
Katsuhito put the case into his travel chest and sighed. *She was willing to sacrifice my love to save my life. She believed, perhaps not without some justification, that I would hate her for sending me back to Jurai. Yet she did it anyway, only because she could not stand to see me die, even at my own wish. She would rather live with my hatred than live while I died. But what can I give her in return? I will be with her if she wishes it, but can I ever love her? She certainly is a fit companion. Honest, loyal, brave, and has shown her ability to love often enough with her daughters. I could not hope to find anyone more capable of intelligent conversation, and she is beautiful. Particularly now that she has abandoned that foolish child disguise.*  
  
Katsuhito abandoned the rest of his clothes to sit down in a chair against the wall of his room. *Then why do I fear I will be unable to love her? She is a good woman and a fine person. She cares deeply for me, much more so than I had believed, and is willing to endure my eccentricities. I could live with her without fear of outliving her. I do not believe the spirits of my wives would disapprove, and Aeka is no longer interested. There could be nothing between us anyway, I do not think. She holds Tenchi in her heart yet, whether she is willing to admit it or not, and it will take a stronger man than I to wrest free a place for himself.*  
  
With a sigh, Katsuhito leaned his head back against the wall, rubbing his face with one hand and massaging his temples. *Perhaps I only need time. I am nearly a millennia old, I do not rush into things well. But then, she is at least ten times that age and she has fallen in love with me.*  
  
Katsuhito shook his head, grudgingly admitting to himself, *I simply do not know. But I will try. I promised her I would, and finding a place in my life for her is the least I can do after she returned it to me. To think, I would have denied myself Jurai forever without her. Father regrets his actions and has rescinded his ban on Namaeto's name. He has even struck the lesson of pain from the Lessons of the House. And I would not have lived to see it, without her.*  
  
"She's right," Katsuhito muttered, running his fingers through his newly black hair, "you Are an old fool, Katsuhito."  
  
He looked down at his hand, admiring the absence of wrinkles and the strong look of his fingers. They had looked even younger before, of course, but he had worn his disguise so long that his new body felt younger than the old. *And even in this, I would not go to her. I did not want to indebt myself further to her, and I knew she would never have accepted payment. So instead I went to the Binodi.   
  
*I could take a lesson from Tenchi, I suppose. He has found a way to put aside his old pains to love a Hakubi woman, it should not be impossible for me to do the same.*  
  
* * *  
  
"So you're leaving today?"  
  
"Yeah," Sasami agreed, looking down at the dirt path past the bench where she sat in the gardens.   
  
"When will you be back?"  
  
Sasami sighed. "Look, Ponua... You're really nice, but- it couldn't work. I mean, if we were on Earth... But I'm the minos and you're my mother's Guardian. You're really cute and if I weren't-" Sasami shook her head. "But I Am. It sucks, but this week is it. After I leave today you'll probably find some other girl, and maybe I'll meet someone back on Earth..."  
  
"We could make it work," Ponua protested. "The Empress could allow it, or-"  
  
"No, Ponua," Sasami said firmly. "She doesn't know and I'm not going to tell her. Walking and talking with you was fun and everything, but I mean... We don't even have anything in common. I'm sorry, Ponua. I figured you knew it couldn't last."  
  
He sighed. "I suppose I did." He rose and tapped his chest formally. "Enjoy your journey, Minos. In your absence the sun's light shall shine less brightly."  
  
Sasami watched him walk quickly and purposefully down the path away from her and sighed. She had been sure he knew that she was not seriously pursuing any sort of relationship with him. He was just someone to have fun with while she was on vacation. She knew it would end when the week was over and had assumed he knew that too. It had given her something to think about instead of Eto.  
  
*So when do I get to find my Tenchi?* Sasami wondered, leaning back sullenly against the bench. She would need to go supervise the last of her packing soon, they were due to leave in three hours. *Ryouko gets Tenchi, and what do I get? First Eto who just wants to get into my pants and now Ponua who wants me to tell my Mother that I want to go out with a Guardian. She'd freak. Maybe I should talk to Ryouko. Maybe she can give me some advice about finding a good guy. But how would she know? Tenchi was her first boyfriend. And I Can't ask Washuu. That would just be too weird. Maybe- maybe Aeka? She's never- but maybe she's had boyfriends besides Yousho. Katsuhito. Whatever.*  
  
Sasami stood, straightening her dress, and headed for the nearest exit from the gardens. The trip back to Earth would be three days, more than enough time to talk to Aeka if she wanted to. For now she had to go tell the maids what clothes she wanted to take home with her.  
  
*Home,* Sasami thought. *I guess Japan is more my home than Jurai, now. I barely know my parents and everything seems so...weird here. How can they stand having Guardians following them around all the time? Ponua was nice, but I think if they thought they could get away with it Azaka and Kotori would follow me into the bathroom.*  
  
Sasami tossed her hair and tried to think about something happier. *I wonder what kind of wedding Ryouko and Tenchi are going to have. I hope they have a Jurain one. Maybe Ryouko will let me stand as her sister with Ryou-ohki.* The news of Tenchi and Ryouko's engagement had come as a surprise only to Aeka, Mataeo, Ai, and Nobuyuki and even for them it was not Really a surprise. Everyone knew the couple would get married eventually, the question was just when they would do it.  
  
Sasami knew she had worried over how Aeka would take it, when the announcement finally came, and assumed at least some of the others had as well. But her sister seemed happy for them. Really happy, not just putting on a show. Aeka cried and rushed over to Ryouko's side of the table, pulling the surprised woman up for a long hug. Then Ryouko was crying, and Aeka hugged Tenchi and congratulated him. Sasami was not sure, even then, five days later, why she had started crying, but she had. Even Katsuhito had a misty look in his eye. Nobuyuki pounded the table and shouted a toast with the sake Tenchi and Ryouko had brought back from their unexpected trip to Earth.   
  
*That's my family now,* Sasami thought, smiling as she remembered the rest of their private dinner that night. Dinner with her father and mothers had been nice too, Azusa surprised them all by toasting Tenchi with nearly as much enthusiasm as Nobuyuki. He said that marriage was one of the most important events in a man's life and that he should know, he had been through it three times, after all. But it was, all in all, a state dinner. After Funaho left the night of the aborted dinner, apologizing for the cancellation and saying that she had matters to attend to, it was just Sasami's new, extended family. Tenchi and Ryouko, Katsuhito and Washuu, Mihoshi and Kiyone, Mataeo and Ai, Nobuyuki and Ryou-ohki. Those were her Real family. She might not be as closely related to some of them as to her father and mother, or at all in some cases, but she felt close to them. Azusa tried hard, she could see, and she Did love him. But he had been distant for so long...a few days could not begin to make up for it.  
  
With a sigh Sasami left the gardens, Azaka and Kotori falling in behind her instantly. The fact that she left from a different direction than she entered the gardens made no difference, the Guardians' network would have had them at her side no matter where she made her exit.  
  
*It'll be nice to be back on Earth,* Sasami reflected, *where I don't have someone following me around all the time.*  
  
* * *  
  
"I can't believe we're leaving," Mataeo sighed, trying to remember how to work the seal on his new Jurain baggage. Ai leaned over and touched a near-invisible knot on the wooden surface and the lid slid silently closed.  
  
"Yeah," she agreed, carefully placing a package within her own luggage-chest. "But we'll come back. Tenchi said they'd bring us back here on holidays whenever we want. And the Empower..." Ai sighed happily. "Can you believe we ate dinner with an empower, Mat? I mean, a real, live Empower?" She shook her head, not waiting for a response, and went on, "He announced me as 'Yodonoa Iaea ro,' eighty-fourth princess of the House Iaea. I still can't believe it, Mat. It's like some kind of fairy tale. I'm a princess. A Real princess!"  
  
Mataeo chuckled. Ai got like this whenever she talked about her new-found title. He was afraid she was going to start signing things 'Yodonoa Iaea Ai' when they got back to Japan. But who could blame her? It was not every day that you find out that you are descended from space-fairing nobility. Even if the line of descent was fairly muddy. Ai got to be eighty-fourth in line for the seat of House Iaea because there were already eighty-three others before her. Not that anyone expected her to ever stake a claim to it. For a Jurain it might not be out of the question, but Ai's Jurain ancestry was so thin that she aged like any other Earth human. Though that Could change. Aeka said that if they ever chose to come to Jurai permanently there were procedures which could give them both lifespans extending into the millennia, rather than a mere century at the outside.  
  
*Maybe we will,* Mataeo thought, putting his hands on Ai's hips and leaning close to kiss her neck. She covered his hands with hers and leaned back slightly, sighing contentedly. They would be having a Jurain wedding, even if they got married on Earth with an Earth wedding first. Ai was quite insistent about it and Mataeo had no arguments. The wedding would be paid for by her House, as would most of their expenses when they came to visit. It turned out that having bloodlines extending to oddball little worlds like Earth was something of a fad among Jurain nobility just then and the current leader of House Iaea, one Lord Plairee, had documents of investiture drawn up for Ai immediately upon hearing of her announcement. Mataeo himself was her official prince consort, lodriam in Jurain, and thus entitled to whatever portion of her estate she chose to give him. When they were married-they had made no official announcement yet, but everyone, including Ai, seemed to assume it would be soon-he would be officially a member of the House. Mataeo was not sure how he felt about that, really. It seemed so...unreal. But it was all very real, he knew. The world around him was every bit as real as Earth, for all its magical wonders, and the people every bit as human as he was, for all their alien-ness.  
  
Ai turned in his grasp, sliding her hands around his waist, and leaned forward to return his kiss. "Come on lodriam," she whispered, "we're only on Jurai for a few more hours. Lets make a few more interesting memories."  
  
"As you have spoken," Mataeo said seriously, trying to keep a straight face, "I obey, yodonoa Ai."  
  
* * *  
  
"Halt, you approach the Inner Chamber."  
  
Ryouko looked between the two Guardians. To a lesser eye than hers they would have seemed to materialize out of the shadows of the hall leading to the great Chamber doors. For her, though, it was obvious that they had been waiting in the wings, hidden by the huge potted plants, and had approached by quite normal means.  
  
"I wish to enter," Ryouko said formally, "and claim my right to do so as a member of the House Jurai." Her Jurain was much better, she felt, than when she had arrived. She and Tenchi had shared her memories of learning it, fairly painless ones since it was done in a matter of seconds within the bowels of one of the Soja's labs, and practiced on one another over the past week. Tenchi's grammar was still a little off, but he sounded wonderful speaking it. His voice was suited to the slightly stuttering vowels and the smooth consonants, Ryouko felt. Even more so than to Japanese. *But then, I think he sounds sexy when he gargles in the morning.*  
  
The Guardians glanced at one another, then tapped their chests and turned away hurriedly. "We apologize, wife of the nashim Tenchi. We had not been briefed with your description nor informed of your intent to visit the Inner Chamber. Please, proceed and forgive us our presumption."  
  
"Forgiven," Ryouko said, still with her best tone of formality. The Guardians moved back to their places on the sides of the hall and Ryouko continued down its center, toward the doors.   
  
*They weren't informed of my intent because I only decided five minutes ago,* Ryouko thought pleasantly. *I really should be helping Tenchi pack, but he's better at that than I am anyway. This is my last chance to do this before we go back to Earth.*  
  
The doors swung wide when Ryouko touched them. She had been afraid they might not, since she was not Really of the House Jurai. She and Tenchi had not had any formal ceremony yet, though Azusa had announced them as husband and wife, and she had less Jurain blood in her veins than Mataeo. Ryouko was not even precisely sure that the stuff in her veins Was blood. She asked Washuu once, but after ten minutes of lecture on dynamically modeling cellular formations with massu proto-forms Ryouko decided it really was not that important a thing to know.   
  
*Now, to find Tsunami...*  
  
Ryouko stepped onto the paths of the Inner Chamber, the doors swinging shut almost silently behind her.   
  
  
"Ryouko."  
  
Ryouko stifled a yelp, turning to look back. She had taken no more than a half dozen steps toward the nearest tree, trying to focus her mind on Tsunami, when the voice spoke. When she looked, she saw that the doors were not where she had left them. Instead, the intense white of the Chamber deepened to near-black as she rotated, and where the path had been level it now descended toward a wide, flat area covered in curving flows of water. At its center was a tall, thin tree dancing with silver flames.  
  
"H-hello, Tsunami," Ryouko said nervously in greeting to the woman standing before her. Tsunami had chosen to appear in her adult form, but Ryouko had no trouble seeing Sasami's face in her features. Little Sasami-not so little anymore, Ryouko reminded herself-would be this woman one day, that was obvious.  
  
"How are you?" Tsunami asked, startling Ryouko. She had not been sure what to expect, but casual chit-chat was not it.  
  
"I- I guess I'm okay." Ryouko followed automatically with, "How're you?" She winced inwardly after speaking. What kind of question was that to ask a goddess?  
  
Tsunami chuckled. "Do not be nervous, Ryouko. I would like to think we are friends, you and I. I am sorry for so frightening you at Christmas, I have not apologized for that."  
  
"It's okay, you're- I mean, you probably have a lot more on your mind that not scaring me."  
  
Tsunami nodded, almost sadly, then smiled. "Why did you come to me today, Ryouko? You are leaving soon, are you not? Should you not be preparing?"  
  
Ryouko nodded, feeling guilty again for leaving the work to Tenchi. "I- I just... I wanted to talk to you. Away from Sasami, I mean. I don't know if that will work. Sasami says she knows pretty much everything when she's you."  
  
"She may," Tsunami agreed. "I only redistrict her knowledge a very little, the better to prepare her for when she has access to it at our will."  
  
"Well then," Ryouko said, "if you're listening to this, Sasami, just stop right now. I need to talk to Tsunami and you're not supposed to hear. Remember what I said about listening when people whisper."  
  
Tsunami chuckled. "A novel approach, Ryouko. Do you think it will work?"  
  
"No," Ryouko sighed. "Sasami does what Sasami wants to do. And don't you think I don't know about Ponua, Sammy. I know you've been sneaking off and ordering him into the gardens. You'd better hope all you did was talk, young lady. He's a Guardian, do you have any idea what those men Do with each other? G-" Ryouko paused, remembering her company. "Who knows where his mouth has been?"  
  
Tsunami laughed then, a deep, rich laugh so full of life and happiness that Ryouko could not help joining her.  
  
"I see why Sasami cares so deeply for you," Tsunami said when her laughter had gentled, wiping a glittering tear from one eye. "You are a unique woman, Ryouko. Have you any idea how long it has been since I laughed? Truly laughed?" She shook her head and smiled sadly. "Too long, Ryouko. Much too long."  
  
"She- she cares?" Ryouko asked. "That's what I came to talk to you about. I- I'm worried I'm not treating her correctly."  
  
"How so?" Tsunami asked curiously.  
  
"You know," Ryouko said uncomfortably, shifting her weight from one foot to the other.  
  
"No," Tsunami disagreed. "I am not using my Knowing now, Ryouko. Tell me, what do you mean? How might you have mistreated Sasami?"  
  
"Not mistreated," Ryouko sighed, sinking down to sit on the path and dangle her legs over the edge. Tsunami startled her again by joining her, her feet kicking gently over the void. "Not exactly anyway. I just- I don't know if I'm doing the right things. Washuu wasn't around when I was... Well, not growing up, I guess. I looked like this, pretty much, the day she made me. But when I was learning to be... Well, to Be. I don't know what a mother should do with her daughter."  
  
"You think of Sasami as your daughter?" Tsunami asked. Her tone betrayed nothing, but at the same time was neither emotionless nor cold.  
  
"I- I don't know. But she comes to me with her problems, and I like trying to help her. I'm not her mother, I know that. And I don't want to take Misaki's place, or Aeka's. But I- I love Sasami. I want to see her happy and have a good life."  
  
"That is all anyone might wish of a mother," Tsunami said gently, patting Ryouko's hand in companionable warmth.   
  
"But I don't know if I'm doing it right," Ryouko protested. "I've told her about sex, but I don't want her actually Having sex. I think if she really did any of the things I've told her about I'd be as upset as Aeka would. And it's not just because Aeka would be upset... I don't even know Why I'd be mad. She's an adult now, her body is her own. I just can't stand the idea of some perverted boy with his hands all over my Sasami--"  
  
"Your Sasami?" Tsunami asked.  
  
Ryouko sighed. "I've known her for so long... Almost as long as Tenchi, and that's almost my whole life, now. I just worry about her, Tsunami. Like with that Guardian. I heard about it fourth hand as a rumor from the nurse who lent me her clothes, but I couldn't say anything to Sasami about it. If I fussed at her like I just did she'd think I'm a hypocrite. I explained the other day why people would want to have oral sex, and now I'm upset because I think she might've kissed that guy."  
  
"She won't think you're a hypocrite, Ryouko."  
  
"I don't know... But am I doing the right things? Telling her the right things? Do normal mothers tell their daughters that it's okay to wear whatever kind of clothes they want, then teach them where to hit a guy who's coming on too strong?"  
  
"The good ones," Tsunami agreed.  
  
Ryouko sighed and shook her head, staring down into the black depths. "It's so hard though, sometimes, Tsunami. I just want to grab her and shake her and tell her I love her and she'll find someone better than Eto or whoever because she's such a great girl. But I know if I did, she'd only get even More depressed. And how would she react if I told her that sometimes I Do think of her like a daughter?"  
  
"I think she knows," Tsunami observed quietly. "It seems obvious to me how much you care for her welfare, even without Knowing it."  
  
"Sometimes, though... Sometimes I lay in bed at night and I- I pretend that Tenchi's my husband and Sasami's my daughter and that we're all just a normal family. I never dared to actually Tell either of them that." Ryouko glanced at the goddess warily. "I can't believe I'm even telling You all this."  
  
"Then do not," Tsunami said gently, "if you do not wish to. We can speak of other things, if you like."  
  
"No," Ryouko sighed, looking back out at the void, "it's okay. I'm getting better at having friends, and I guess you are one. I mean, it's not like I've talked to you a lot; but it's like talking to Sasami, if she were my age."  
  
"I'm a bit older than you, Ryouko," Tsunami pointed out, "but otherwise you are correct."  
  
Ryouko chuckled. "A bit older." She shook her head and hooked a loose lock of hair back over her ear before continuing where she had interrupted herself, "I might tell Tenchi. He's seen it anyway, even if he doesn't remember it. I know he's had the same fantasy sometimes. But Sasami? How would she react if she knew I wished she really were my daughter? If I told her I couldn't wish to have a better little girl than she is? She's so hard on herself, sometimes. If she didn't get perfect grades in school, or if her friends picked on her for something, and the whole Eto thing... I think she still thinks it was her fault that he left her. That little prick. I swear, if I ever get my hands on him..."  
  
"Tenchi Is your husband now, Ryouko," Tsunami pointed out. "In the eyes of the Living Throne, anyway. And I think that perhaps Sasami feels the same way you do, at times."  
  
"Really?" Ryouko asked, startled. "But I don't-"  
  
"I know," Tsunami interrupted gently. "You do not wish to replace her real parents or her sister. And you won't. Not ever. Misaki is her mother and will be all her life, as is Aeka her sister. What Sasami has with you is yours and hers alone. Your relationship is your relationship, as special and unique as is her relationship with her mother or her sister."  
  
Ryouko nodded. "I guess I can accept that. I'm glad she likes me. But are you sure I'm doing right? I'm teaching her the right things and not being too strict or too lenient?"  
  
"Every mother must be different, Ryouko, even when you are not her birth mother. That's because every child is different, and Sasami is, perhaps, more different than most. But she is happy much of the time, as are you. If that is not sign enough that you are doing well, Ryouko, then I do not know what more I can offer you."  
  
Ryouko smiled and leaned over to hug the goddess around the shoulders. "Thank you, Tsunami. I think I needed to hear that right now."  
  
"You have other matters on your mind," Tsunami observed.  
  
"Going all-knowing on me?" Ryouko asked, cocking an eyebrow.  
  
"No," Tsunami chuckled softly, "but you do not hide it well. Do you wish to speak with me of them?"  
  
Ryouko started to speak, then paused, and finally said, "No. I think I need to think about it some more, and then talk to Tenchi."  
  
Tsunami nodded. "Your husband is wise, in his way."  
  
Ryouko chuckled, "In his way. He's an idiot in his way, too, sometimes. But if he were wise all the time I don't think I'd love him half as much."  
  
"Mm," Tsunami agreed, "the flawed gem is all the more interesting for its imperfection."  
  
"Tsunami? Will you- will you do me a favor?"  
  
"If it is allowed to me," Tsunami agreed.  
  
"Watch out for Sasami? I don't want her getting hurt anymore."  
  
"There are things she must see and do-"  
  
"No," Ryouko interrupted, "that's not what I mean. I know she's becoming a goddess, and that Can't be easy for her. But I mean with... boys and things. I can't be there for her all the time, and I can't tell her what to do in every situation. Those Lessons did that, but she seems to be able to get over them most of the time. I just don't want anything like with Eto happening again. If she's confused about where a relationship is going, make sure she comes to me instead of just keeping it bottled up until something snaps?"  
  
Tsunami nodded. "A reasonable request. But I can make no promises, Ryouko, much as I might wish to. I am becoming her as much as she is becoming me, and I have little force over her free will. But when she is hurting or confused, I will make sure that she remembers those who love her."  
  
"Thanks," Ryouko sighed, pushing herself up to her feet. "I'd better go help Tenchi pack. He can't fold women's clothes for anything."  
  
"Farewell, Ryouko," Tsunami replied, rising to her feet. "Have a pleasant journey home."  
  
"I will," Ryouko agreed. "It should be nice. Tenchi and I are going to take a little side trip. I want him to see the crystal falls and we'll be passing by Yall on the way home anyway."  
  
"Mmm," Tsunami murmured appreciatively. "They are beautiful. I have seen all the worlds in the universe, and there are few waterfalls as wonderful as those on Yall."  
  
"Really?" Ryouko asked curiously. "They're nice, but they're the best? In the whole universe?"  
  
"One of," Tsunami agreed. "But it is a relative thing, Ryouko. Over the light years and the eons there have been a million million sights more splendorous than the crystal falls. But against the span of the universe, that is a tiny number indeed."  
  
"Yeah," Ryouko agreed thoughtfully, trying to politely avoid looking at Tsunami's eyes. She had still not forgotten the way they looked on Christmas night.  
  
"Ryouko? When you have returned to Earth, remember that I am with Sasami?"  
  
"I- I'm not sure what you mean," Ryouko said hesitantly.  
  
"Only that I am there, if you wish to speak with me. There are times when a woman needs a friend, and such a being is not always easy to come by."  
  
Ryouko nodded, trying to decide if Tsunami was talking about her, or about herself. "I will," she promised.  
  
* * *  
  
"All you have to do is wear it while you're in the room," Washuu explained, trying her best to remain calm with the police woman. "You don't have to actually Do anything. And I won't interfere with the examination, this will just transmit the data back to my lab."  
  
"No," Kiyone said firmly, pushing the earring Washuu held out in offering away. "I told you before; the last time was the Last time. No more, Miss Washuu. If Mihoshi remembers on her own, good for her; but I'm not going to try to force her anymore. And if I find out that you're still tangling her up in your little schemes without my help, I'll do my best to make sure you don't get to follow through."  
  
"Kiyone," Washuu sighed, "you don't understand-"  
  
"Yes," Kiyone interrupted, "I do. I've known University people before, Miss Washuu. You all get this way to one degree or another. Something gets under your skin that you don't have an answer for, and you obsess over it until you find one. I'm sorry, but this time you're not going to. If it were a plant or a bug or something I'd be glad to help, but it's Mihoshi. She's a human being, Miss Washuu. She's got real feelings, even if it's not always really obvious what they are. And I will Not be party to screwing with her head, understand?"  
  
Washuu nodded irritably and tried one last time. She had not intended to play this card, but she could not simply let the Mihoshi Question, as she had started to think of it, slip away this easily. "But if she remembered who she is, she would be the officer you looked up to again. Just think of it, Kiyone. Mihoshi, brightest star in the GP again, and you as her partner. If she were back on the ball again, she'd make Vice Commissioner inside a decade and you'd be right there alongside her."  
  
"No," Kiyone said again, even more firmly. "Mihoshi can make it on her own. She's doing better now, she just needed someone who would show her how without getting pissed off at her."  
  
"But she wouldn't Need anyone to show her how," Washuu protested. "And just think, Kiyone, she'd be a normal person again. No more of this weird juvenile persona she's developed since losing her memory. Wouldn't that be nice? You said you worried about making a move on her because she's so innocent. She'd be a real woman if she had her memory back, Kiyone. You two could have a real-"  
  
"That is none of your god damn business!" Kiyone shouted, face flushing rapidly. "And there's nothing to Be your business, even if it was! I'm not like that, and I don't know what the hell you're talking about about making a move... I never said anything like that! Mihoshi is my friend, dammit. That's All she is. So just take your stupid little toy and go back to your stupid little lab and shove it somewhere!" Kiyone stormed past the stunned scientist, grumbling loudly about know-it-all University women who didn't even know what the hell they were talking about.  
  
Washuu sighed and tucked the earring back in her breast pocket, not quite willing to give up just yet. It was too big a puzzle to just leave alone. Something chimed softly in her pocket and Washuu unfolded her computer, thinking how nice it would be to be away from Jurai where she could use her holo-computer again.  
  
*Thos idiots on the Council need to get their priorities straight,* Washuu thought sullenly, paging through the programs currently running to find the one that had requested her attention. *They could link my holographic computer technology with their trees if they hadn't banned my hyper-space transceiver designs first. Then they wouldn't have to maintain this stupid policy on physical-only number crunchers and I wouldn't have to carry this backward little thing around all the time.*  
  
As it turned out the chime had only been a reminder that the transport ship they would be taking home to Earth would be leaving in fifteen minutes. Not enough time to approach Kiyone again, then. She would simply have to come up with something else.  
  
Washuu folded the computer and stowed it back in her pocket. She turned to the door of her room and touched the metal plate beside it in order to signal the staff that she was ready to leave, then went back to the bed. Everything was packed away in travel logs except the clothes on her back and a small bag containing a change of clothes and her makeup kit. She had seen to it that she would have the cabin beside Katsuhito's aboard the ship and intended to waste no time in paying him a visit.  
  
* * *  
  
"They are safely away, then?"  
  
"Yes, my lady." The speaker was cloaked in black cloth from toe to forehead, his-or her, the individual's sex was impossible to determine outwardly and their voice too neutral to give hints-hair spilling out in an ebon cascade down his/her neck.  
  
"Good," Funaho replied, resuming her seat. She had risen when the person entered the room but before he/she made themselves obvious. It paid to remind her spies that she knew not only knew all their tricks, but had means around most of them. "And Vianna is aboard as well?"  
  
"Yes, Empress. She has been instructed to serve as the minos' personal guardian during her time on Earth. The minos was most displeased with this news."  
  
"Mmm," Funaho replied indifferently, touching the top of her desk and activating a holographic display. "She will get over it."  
  
"She was Most displeased," the spy said again. "She attempted to order the guard off of the ship and hid in her cabin when the command failed."  
  
"I feel sorry for her," Funaho sighed. "Truly I do, but there is nothing to be done for it. My sister feels this is a necessary precaution. Our man was aboard as well?"  
  
"M'lady," the spy agreed. "Ser was aboard the vessel."  
  
"And their baggage was checked?"  
  
"Ser did a thorough job, Empress. The one called Hakubi Washuu had a great number of transmitters and other odd devices in her luggage, but none were active and none appeared to be of Jurain manufacture."  
  
"The one called Hakubi Washuu," Funaho repeated, looking up from her display terminal. "Why do you refer to her that way?"  
  
"We have been unable to ascertain if she is the renowned scientist, Empress. It is most frustrating, all our roots have struck stone."  
  
Funaho chuckled. There were few in the galaxy that could foil her staff, but Washuu would be one of them. "Do not concern yourselves with the matter. Her past is unimportant. Our man aboard the ship, ser is of the circle?"  
  
"Ser is," the spy agreed. "We have no doubt that ser can be trusted with this mission, but precautions have been taken as appropriate. Ser's first report is due in seven minutes, at m'lady's pleasure."  
  
Funaho nodded, touching off her display and rising once more to her feet. "Convene a council," she ordered. "We will discuss the Uran situation and how best to proceed with it. And of the one I have sent with my daughters and their friends; none will know that ser boarded that ship."  
  
The spy nodded, a barely discernable motion in the black-on-black. "The wind shall carry no voice."  
  
"Good," Funaho said, gesturing to the door. "Let us go. How are you called?"  
  
"M'lady may use the name Ilatrois."  
  
"Ah, you are male?"  
  
"Ser has assumed that role," the spy agreed neutrally.  
  
Funaho chuckled. That was the proper response, but it was good to keep them on their toes. Relaxed spies made for dead spies.  
  
"Come then, Ilatrois."  
  
The spy stepped toward the door and ser's body shifted, the black flowing together and apart. Where ser had stood was now apparently empty space, though Funaho could easily discern the presence. She went to the door and opened it, the spy having already passed through, and stepped into the hallway.  
  
*Something must be done with Uran,* she thought, *before he goes any further. If Azusa will not act, I shall. And I must not let my concern for Sasami and Aeka mar my judgment. I will put them from my mind for the time being, and that is that. Vianna is capable, even if I do not trust her, and the ser aboard the ship will keep ser's eye on her.*  
  
"What is your opinion on the Uran situation?" Funaho asked of the spy who walked invisibly and nearly intangibly a few steps ahead. She did not actually speak, only moved her vocal cords as though sub-vocalizing a command. She had not doubt that her servant would hear, though. Ilatrois' senses were aided by sufficient devices that anything more vocal than a strong thought was picked up easily.  
  
"We feel that Uran's security network is well built, but we have analyzed it thoroughly and found several weaknesses. In the case of foreign affairs..."  
  
* * *  
  
"What did you wish to talk about Sasami?"  
  
Sasami shifted uncomfortably on her chair. Not that the chair was anything but comfortable, everything in Aeka's cabin was of the finest quality. Sasami was actually slightly jealous, her room was not nearly this nice. She forced her mind to the matter at hand, trying to find some way to ask her question that would not upset her sister.  
  
"Aeka," she started cautiously, "have you- that is, I know that you... Before you--"  
  
"What is it Sasami?" Aeka asked, frowning in concern when her sister was unable to complete the question. "Is something wrong?"  
  
"No," Sasami sighed. "Not- not really, I guess. Do you- do you remember me talking about Eto?"  
  
Aeka nodded. "Yes, I believe so. He went to school with you in Tokyo, didn't he? As I recall you mentioned that- that you had something of a crush on him." It was obviously difficult for Aeka to say that, but she said it anyway. Sasami could not decide if she wanted to be hurt by her sister's dismissal of her feelings as a 'crush' or if she should be happy that Aeka was at least willing to talk about it.  
  
"Yeah," she agreed eventually, "I guess. But he was a real as- jerk. He tried to-" Sasami shook her head, that was not a conversation she wanted to have just then. "It doesn't matter. He dumped me. I mean, I guess we sort of dumped each other."  
  
"Oh?" Aeka asked. She had never been very good at hiding her emotions and it was painfully obvious that she was quite pleased with the news. "Well, I'm glad that you came to me about this, Sasami. You'll find someone else, someone much better suited to you. I never met this Eto boy, but I'm sure mother never would have approved. I hear that there is a young man in House Gin that's about your age. Court gossip says he's quite handsome, did you hear of him? I think his name was Teril. Maybe Meril. There are so many new names to remember..."  
  
*This is exactly why I didn't want to talk to her,* Sasami thought sadly. *I knew she'd either blow up at me or start in on what was proper. I don't want to marry some stodgy prince from House Gin. Mom tried to get me to go on a marriage interview the fourth day after we got to Jurai, doesn't Aeka remember how awful they are? I just want to meet someone nice and have a Normal relationship. Someone sweet and funny, like Tenchi. He doesn't even have to be all That good looking.*  
  
Aeka was still going on about Court, she seemed to have forgotten Sasami's situation entirely and was talking about some stupid border conflict somewhere.  
  
"Aeka," Sasami interrupted, "did you ever have any boyfriends other than Yousho?"  
  
Aeka halted mid-sentence to stare at her sister. "Wh- Sasami- I- I don't see how that's any of your business."  
  
Sasami sighed. "I guess it's not." She started to rise, intending to just go back to her cabin and take a nap, but Aeka stopped her.  
  
"Sasami, I'm sorry. Sit down." When her sister had settled again Aeka went on, "I was just startled... I know you're a- a grown woman, now, Sasami. I just have such a hard time remembering that. When I look at you, I still see the little girl who's been my sister for so long. But I know you're not her anymore, so I'll try to stop treating you that way. Why do you want to know if I've ever had a boyfriend?"  
  
Sasami thinned her lips and looked at her sister appraisingly. Was this for real? Aeka was almost always honest with her, sometimes brutally so, but could she really be admitting that Sasami was an adult now? Somehow the princess had not thought that admission would come so easily. Aeka had seemed determined to continue treating her like a child no matter what she said.  
  
"It's just- I was hoping you could give me some advice," Sasami said carefully, watching Aeka for a reaction, "about meeting boys, I mean. Eto- I liked Eto and I kinda... I just want to know how I can find someone nice instead of just another jerk like him, or someone dense like Ponua that I'm just going to end up hurting." Sasami's eyes widened and she stifled a gasp when she realized what she had said. Aeka did not know about Ponua, and she had not intended to let her find out.  
  
"Ponua? Mother's Guardian? What about him?"  
  
Sasami looked away from Aeka's gaze and toyed nervously with the hem of her shirt while trying to think of a convincing story to spin for her sister.  
  
"Sasami? What's going on between you and Ponua? Do you realize the scandal that a relationship between the minos of House Jurai and a Guardian would cause? Tell me you only had a crush on him. You didn't actually- you didn't Do anything, did you?"  
  
Sasami sighed. "Why do you have to be like this all the time? I was hoping I could-" What was she hoping? Her sister had always been this way, why had she expected anything else? If Sasami had a problem she could go to Aeka and Aeka would fix it, if she could, and she would be gentle about it if gentleness was called for. But if it was something improper or if Sasami had done something that Aeka didn't like, the younger princess had never had any doubt she would be told quite plainly what her sister's opinions on the matter were. Aeka loved her, and she loved Aeka. *She was just about my only friend when I was little,* Sasami thought sadly, *but Aeka can be... She can be such a Bitch sometimes. Why can't she just forget about the throne and be my sister for a little while? That's all I want.* And the worst of it was that Aeka would do so, she knew, if it were about almost anything else. If she were upset over the sorts of things that had upset her a year ago, Aeka wouldn't even mention Court or scandals.  
  
"Now tell me what you did with mother's Guardian," Aeka was saying. "I'll call her and we will make sure that no one finds out about this. Really, Sasami, I don't see why you-"  
  
"Why can't you just be more like Ryouko?" Sasami asked desperately, regretting her words the instant after speaking.  
  
Aeka's eyes widened and she gasped, "Sasami!"  
  
"I'm sorry," Sasami sighed, getting up from her chair and moving toward the door. "I'm sorry, Aeka. This was a bad idea."  
  
  
Vianna was waiting for her when Sasami left Aeka's cabin and fell in behind her as she headed up the corridor. Sasami turned when she was halfway back to her own room, frustrated with her sister and even more angry at herself for what she had said and thought. "Go away!"  
  
"I am charged with protecting you," Vianna said calmly, "I will not neglect my duties, however distasteful they may be."  
  
"Distasteful?" Sasami asked in shocked disbelief. "Distasteful?! You- you- I could--"  
  
Vianna made no response, just stared levelly back at the princess, the soft lights of the corridor gleaming off her slightly shiny pink hair.  
  
*Aeka probably hates me now, Ryouko's gone with Tenchi to Yall, Mihoshi and Kiyone are off on Dalris, Washuu's busy somewhere with Grandpa... I haven't even seen Ryou-ohki since yesterday. The only person that wants to be around me is Vianna, and she's such a... Arg! Why did Mom have to send her? Why does everything have to be so- so- so Difficult?*  
  
"Just leave me alone! I don't care What mother told you, I don't need a guard and I don't want one!"  
  
Vianna scowled. Well, not Really scowled, Sasami had to admit. More like frowned slightly, but in her present mood it Looked like a scowl to Sasami. "Misaki charged me with your protection and I will follow her order. But it would be much easier if you did not act like an ignorant child."  
  
"An ignorant child," Sasami repeated quietly, staring the other woman in the eye. Vianna had been nothing but a pain since the moment they met. She did not treat Sasami with anything like the respect that the princess was used to from anyone not of royal birth, and half the time she even talked down to her.  
  
"You- you arrogant bitch!" Sasami growled, "Who the hell do you think you Are? I'm not some prissy little princess like you're used on Jurai, Vianna. I haven't lived there for five years, and on Earth Nobody talks to me that way. Maybe you can get away with saying something like that to the donos of House Jon, but if you call me ignorant or a child again-"  
  
"What?" Vianna asked neutrally. "You will what, Sasami? Do you think that I wished to be made your babysitter? I am a warrior; your mother's personal student. I've bested more Guardians than I care to remember, and even my own sisters cannot match me. I am fit to protect the Empower himself, and instead I am charged with protecting a spoiled little brat who thinks herself above the throne. You wish to threaten me? Do not make promises you cannot keep, Sasami. Speak rudely to me again and I will not hesitate to give you the sort of lessons your mother used in teaching me."  
  
"Why you-" Sasami pulled back and swung at Vianna, meaning to slap her. The pink-haired woman snatched her hand in mid-air without so much as twitching her eye, squeezing painfully hard on Sasami's wrist.   
  
"Do not think to treat my as a servant," Vianna growled. "Because I am charged to be your protector does Not make me subservient to you. I am your elder and I will be treated with respect, even if you do not deign to show such to your own sister!"  
  
"Let go," Sasami pleaded, tugging in vain on her arm. Vianna's grip was like iron, though, and similarly immovable.  
  
"Apologize," Vianna demanded. "And agree to treat me as an equal. I do not relish this duty, but it may be bearable if we can come to some understanding."  
  
"Apologize..." Sasami glared at the warrior, her lips twisting into an angry frown. "Let go of me, Vianna. Right now."  
  
"Not until you admit that you are a spoiled child," Vianna said sternly, squeezing harder on Sasami's wrist. "Your rank does not matter to me, Sasami. I have never had your precious Lessons. To me, even Misaki is only another woman. I respect her for her skill and her strength. She knows more than I do, and I will learn from her until such time as that is no longer true. But you have neither skill, strength, nor knowledge. You are a petulant child who is far too full of herself."  
  
"Let. Go. Now." Sasami's eyes gleamed dangerously, but Vianna took no notice."  
  
"Apologize," she demanded instead. "And promise to heed me as your elder in the future."  
  
"I said," Sasami said quietly, drawing her free hand back, "to let the fuck go of my arm, you arrogant, self-righteous, superior little Slut!" Sasami thrust forward with her open hand, a sphere of crackling silver flame exploding into her palm as it moved toward Vianna's chest. The warrior woman had time only to gape at it for a split second before the orb of Jurai energy struck her, sending her flying backward down the hall like a rag doll to slam bodily into the far wall. Sasami inspected her arm and, when she was sure no damage had been done, went to Vianna. She knew the woman was alive and mostly uninjured. She had meant it only as a lesson, not as an attack.   
  
"Ignorant child," Tsunami spat. "You will learn to speak with more caution to your betters."  
  
* * *  
  
"Misaki, what have you not told me?"   
  
"Vianna," Misaki said in greeting from the comm display. "There are a great many things I have not told you, which particular one are you inquiring about?"  
  
"By the daughters of Jurai," Vianna swore angrily, "you know what I'm talking about! Your daughter nearly killed me, Misaki. Why was I not warned that she had such power? She commands the silver flames, Misaki. You lead me to believe that none but myself and my sisters had that power."  
  
Misaki looked away and gestured at a terminal before refocusing on the fuming guard. "Really, Vianna. You should not allow your anger to overcome your good judgment so. Speaking of such things on an unsecured line... Really."  
  
"It was secure," Vianna grumbled, "I did it myself."  
  
Misaki sniffed and rolled her eyes. "Your talents do not lie in such directions, Vianna. And as for my daughter... Will this cause you to be unable to perform your duties?"  
  
Vianna grimaced but shook her head. "No, I will do as you have bid. But I do not like being sent blind into danger, Misaki. She knocked me cold and I was forced to tell the medical staff aboard that it was a training accident. A little more power and she could have killed me."  
  
"The silver fire is not easily tamed," Misaki said calmly. "If you are still alive, she meant you to be. What did you do to engender her wrath?"  
  
"I did nothing! We were merely speaking and she attacked me!"  
  
Misaki raised an eyebrow doubtfully. "Lying does not become you, Vianna. Perhaps I should send one of your sisters to perform this task instead? Milea would be eager, I think."  
  
Vianna's lips thinned in anger and she said, "No, I will do as I have been commanded. Milea would as soon take your daughter by force as protect her, you know her habits as well as I."  
  
"I have never known her to rape," Misaki denied. "And you seem quite confident that Sasami could defend herself. Perhaps it would be better that way. Milea would certainly keep it more discreet than Ponua. I had to have the poor boy's memory wiped just to keep him from grumbling around the palace."  
  
"I said that I would perform my duties," Vianna growled.  
  
"Good then," Misaki said pleasantly. "I will expect your report two days after your arrival on Earth. And please avoid contacting me in the future, Vianna? Secrecy is Not your strong suite and I have, I believe, stressed sufficiently that your movements at the present are not to be public knowledge."  
  
Vianna started a retort but Misaki cut the connection before she had even opened her mouth to speak.   
  
*Trying to give my duties to Milea of all people. I would as soon see Guardians take the job. Milea may have trained with me as my sister, but she does not understand honor or restraint. She would have her legs around Sasami's head inside a week, whether the girl wished it or not.*  
  
Vianna stalked angrily out of her room, thinking that she would have a talk with the minos. She would not apologize, certainly. It was the girl's fault, not hers, but anyone who could command the silver flames was not to be readily trifled with. It took great discipline to use the power of Jurai in that way, and if Misaki's daughter had mastered it at such a young age then she was deserving of at least some modicum of respect. Even if she Was a spoiled little bitch.  
  
* * *  
  
"What's wrong, Tenchi?" Ryouko spoke in Japanese, thinking that her husband would more readily share his feelings knowing that the people around them could not understand.  
  
Tenchi glanced over at her, then went back to looking half-heartedly around at the sights of Nedri Port. "Nothing," he sighed, not at all convincingly.  
  
"Come on," Ryouko prodded, holding his arm a bit tighter. "What's up? You look really down and we're supposed to be having fun."  
  
Tenchi patted her hand gently and shook his head. "It's really nothing honey. I just- it's just that in a few days we'll be going back to Earth."  
  
"You want to stay longer?" Ryouko asked, thinking that an extended stay on Yall would hardly be out of the question. It was months still before the fall semester and she was having a wonderful time. It had been twelve hundred years since she visited the planet, back when Nedri was little more than a couple of landing pads and a bank. Now it was a bustling metropolis, and the crystal falls had been even more spectacular than she remembered. Nowhere else in the known galaxy could you see a three hundred meter waterfall inside the half-buried remains of a huge geode. Last time she visited had been under Kagato's order and she had seen the falls only in passing. Now she knew that the massive crystal had been an exceptionally rare meteorite that impacted the planet millions of years ago, fracturing and eventually being intersected by the rivers that formed the falls.  
  
Tenchi, she had thought, was enjoying himself too. Up until now he had been all smiles and laughter, holding her hand and pointing excitedly at this or that. When they went to the falls he seemed even more moved than she herself had been, staring slack-jawed at the roaring waterfalls for long minutes. They kissed in the light spray that was kicked across the hundreds of yards distance between the falls themselves and the observation deck, and had another tourist take their picture in front of the view. Ryouko thought the trip would be a sort of prelude to their honeymoon, and until now it had seemed like exactly that. But now Tenchi seemed depressed about something and her attempts to peek at his thoughts were gently but firmly denied.  
  
After long moments of silence Tenchi sighed. "No. I mean, it'd be nice...but that's not why I'm feeling down. It's just that after all this; can we really just go back home? While I was on Earth with all of you, I could just sort of ignore that you were all from space. I mean, sure you were from wherever...but I'd never been there. The Earth and Japan were all I'd ever known, so it wasn't hard to forget that Aeka and Sasami are princesses of Jurai, or that I was supposed to be some kind of prince."  
  
"And now that you've seen it, you're not quite so willing to be the simple Earth boy?" Ryouko asked, understanding dawning.   
  
"I guess," Tenchi agreed, looking up at the Nedri elevator. "I mean, look at that. Space elevators are science fiction back home. I never thought I'd see one for real, but there it is. We even rode down on it. I can never tell anyone about that back home except maybe Mat and Ai. How can we just go back there after all this?"  
  
"I've done it," Ryouko reminded him. "I was 'out here' for thousands of years, Tenchi, and gave it all up for Earth. It's not that hard, really. Nedri Port is nice, but Tokyo has nice things too. And it's not like we can never come back here, or go back to Jurai."  
  
Tenchi sighed. "You're right. I'm sorry honey." He smiled and kissed her quickly to show he meant it. Tenchi was still reluctant to show more affection than holding hands in public, but he was getting better. Ryouko hoped he would hang on to at least a little of his shyness though, it was cute the way he blushed when she gave him more than a buss on the lips where anyone could see.  
  
"Want to go back to the hotel?" Ryouko asked. "I'm kind of hungry and my legs are getting tired."  
  
Tenchi nodded, then glanced at her sideways. "You? Tired? Are you okay?"  
  
"Fine," Ryouko lied. She was afraid she knew why she felt tired, but was not at all ready to talk to Tenchi about it.  
  
* * *  
  
"Thanks Kat," Washuu sighed, "I'm just sorry that's the last dinner we'll get before we're back on Earth."  
  
"Oh?" Katsuhito asked, stopping in front of the door to Washuu's cabin. "I think Sasami's cooking is at least as good as the ship's dining room."  
  
"It is," Washuu agreed. "But there's just something special about eating in a restaurant with someone you love."  
  
Katsuhito frowned slightly and Washuu regretted saying it. She Did love him, but she knew how he felt about her saying it.  
  
"Do you- do you want to come in?" Washuu asked, touching open the door to her room. "I could have tea sent up."  
  
*Listen to me,* Washuu chastised herself. *Stuttering like a child. Am I nervous that he will say no, or that he might say yes?*  
  
Katsuhito seemed about to accept, then shook his head. "No. Thank you for the offer Washuu, but tomorrow will be an busy day and I think I'm going to bed."  
  
"So early? You're a young man again, Kat, you can be active at night now."  
  
"Old habits die hard," Katsuhito sighed. "I'm sorry, Washuu. Goodnight."  
  
"Goodnight Kat," Washuu said worriedly. She did not think he was talking about his bedtime when he said 'habits,' and worried that he was beating himself up over his reluctance to be more affectionate. She knew she was probably over-analyzing, but it was a trait she could not deny and which seemed to assert itself at the most inappropriate times. Washuu took a step toward Katsuhito and kissed him quickly on the cheek before turning and going into her cabin, wondering at the blush that rose on her face.  
  
*You'd think I was Sasami's age, blushing over a kiss on the cheek. What is it about that man that makes me act this way?*  
  
The door slid shut on a surprised Katsuhito and Washuu sighed. She knew what made her act that way. Having all the answers was Really annoying sometimes.  
  
"You always were an idiot when you were in love," Washuu scolded herself. "And why him, anyway? Just because he's handsome and charming, or is it because he's funny and just sophisticated enough to make you nervous? Or maybe because he's old enough to be able to identify with you without making you feel ancient? Or because he's smart enough to talk to without having to censor yourself?"  
  
Washuu sat down heavily on her bed, kicking off the shoes she had worn to dinner. It was all of those things, of course. She did not know when it started, but once she had begun down the path of attraction to Katsuhito she spiraled inward like a planet being sucked into a gravity well. She had never in her life been a woman that did things in half measures, and with relationships it was just as true as with science. Even with Ryouko, she went from nervous ally to full motherhood in a matter of months. And Ryou-ohki she stopped thinking of as a pet and started thinking of as a daughter almost overnight. The fact that the girl could talk now helped, of course. There was something utterly irresistible about that furry little face saying, "Mommy! Teach me some more, Mommy?"  
  
"You're as foolish as the old man," Washuu said, not really angry with herself. She could not deny her nature and trying would do no one any good. She had at least convinced Katsuhito that she was worth having as a friend and that a closer relationship would not be entirely out of the question. Now she only had to break down a few more barriers and he would be putty in her hands. Adorable putty, but putty none the less.  
  
*I wish he'd come to me for his alteration,* Washuu thought, taking the folding computer from atop her luggage and tapping idly at it. *And not just because I want to see him naked. He was lucky with the Binodi. He might've come out of their clinic with three eyes and nothing but scars for a chest. I could have done the procedure when we got back to Earth and my lab, and I wouldn't have charged him a credit.*  
  
But, again, she knew why he had done it. Or thought she did. Katsuhito was the kind of man who could not stand owing someone a debt that he could not repay. There was only one thing that Washuu wanted of him, and he knew it, but he was obviously not ready to give her his heart the way his grandson had her daughter. So he had tried to avoid owing her anything more than he already did. Not that Washuu counted him in her debt for what she had done in the campground. The fact that he was willing to let her be a part of his life was more than payment enough for preserving his continued existence, after all.  
  
Washuu stretched out on her bed, feet kicking idly in the air, and went to work on a few neglected experiments as a means of distracting herself.  
  
*I wonder if I can talk Kat into a trip to Dalris to visit Mihoshi. Maybe I can get the astral scan data out of their records, even if Kiyone won't help me.*  
  
* * *  
  
Tenchi took one hand away from Ryouko's chest, reaching for the table beside the bed where his bag of personal things sat. The movement disturbed her enough that Ryouko opened her eyes, looking to see why Tenchi had paused in his entirely enjoyable ministrations.  
  
*This again,* she thought, a little irritably. Anything that interrupted foreplay was something that annoyed Ryouko.  
  
"Tenchi," she breathed softly, removing her hand from his. He did not need guidance in finding the right spots to touch anymore, but she liked holding his hand. "Don't stop, Tenchi."  
  
"I'm just--"  
  
Ryouko leaned over and kissed his throat at the collarbone, running her fingernails lightly down his chest. "Not tonight, Tenchi."  
  
"Ryouko," Tenchi sighed.  
  
She let her fingers drift lower, making sure he was ready. He was. Ryouko rolled over, straddling Tenchi's waist, and lowered herself purposefully onto him before leaning down to whisper in his ear. She knew how much having her hair tickling his face in that position turned him on, and made use of that knowledge quite freely. "Go ahead, Tenchi. I'll get off if you want to put on a condom..."  
  
Ryouko lifted herself slightly, squeezing his thighs, then let her body's weight settle atop his. "Hmmm?" She murmured, nipping gently as Tenchi's neck.  
  
Tenchi made a soft little noise, halfway between sigh and moan, and Ryouko knew she had him. "But what if-" he protested weakly, his hand already moving away from the bag on the night stand.  
  
"We've already done this twice," Ryouko reminded him, rocking ever so slowly. "Don't you like being inside me without one of those on, Tenchi? Doesn't it feel-" Ryouko contracted around him as best she could. It was a skill she had only discovered recently but which she could tell Tenchi liked, "-good?"  
  
Tenchi made that noise again and Ryouko smiled, tossing her head so that her hair would tickle his face. She felt his hands on her hips and Ryouko knew she would have no more argument out of Tenchi that night. He liked it without the condoms as much as she did. More, she thought. But he was nervous about pregnancy.   
  
*Odd,* Ryouko mused, trying to keep her rhythm slow and leisurely while Tenchi stroked her thighs, *I was the one that was nervous about that before. I guess that makes sense. If I'm already pregnant, what's one more time going to hurt? And it Does feel better this way.* Ryouko lifted, contracted, and pressed back down; a sequence that never failed to draw a groan from Tenchi. *God, does it feel better this way...*  
  
She leaned down and kissed him, venting her own pleased moan when he cupped her breast and thrust against her gently rocking hips.  
  
When she felt the feather-light probing of Tenchi's mind at the edge of hers Ryouko's paused, startled. She looked down at him, her rocking motion interrupted, and asked, "Tenchi? Are you- are you sure?"  
  
"Mmm," Tenchi agreed, moving one hand around her back to draw Ryouko's body own atop his while pressing more urgently at the boundaries of her psyche. He could enter without asking, of course. Not only did he have the power to bowl through whatever defenses Ryouko erected, she would not stop him if he tried. They had already shared everything, she no long had anything to hide. *Well, almost nothing.*  
  
But the last time they did that while making love the last time... It was sixteen hours before Ryouko could stand unaided, and nearly twenty for Tenchi. He must have picked up the edge of her thought, for Tenchi reminded her, "We're staying two extra days, honey..."  
  
Ryouko was still slightly hesitant, but Tenchi rolled over on the bed, taking her with him. Ryouko yelped, startled, but grinned up at her husband when his weight settled atop her. He re-arranged himself comfortably, leaning on his elbows only enough that his chest rubbed hers with every breath rather than simply resting atop it. *I never should have told him his chest hair tickled...*  
  
Tenchi pressed against her mind again and Ryouko gave up. She opened herself to him, simultaneously wrapping her legs around his waist, and whispered, "Be gentle, Tenchi."  
  
  
He was. He always was. And, not much later, when she wanted him to be anything But gentle, he was that too.  
  
* * *  
  
"Thank you for dinner Quan," Atiena said, not without real gratitude. "Your ship is quite nice. Much larger than the Corona."  
  
"Isn't it?" Captain Takima agreed.   
  
*Most guys wouldn't insult the starship of a woman they're trying to get into bed," Atiena thought. *So is he trying to impress me with his honesty, or is he just a moron?*  
  
"We have boarding available, if you or your crew would prefer to stay here," Takima offered. "If we are to have an extended relationship between our two vessels, it only makes sense that we all be as comfortable as possible."  
  
*And it would be so much easier for you to just 'drop by' my room if it were up the hall from yours, wouldn't it? Or maybe you would just happen to run out of rooms and we captains would have to bunk together?*  
  
"I'll ask my crew."  
  
"Shall I walk you back to the lock then?" Takima offered, Smiling Cheerfully.  
  
Atiena suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and, instead, smiled. "Sure, Quan." Unable to resist the urge she added in an affectedly uneducated accent, "These Fleet ships are just so...Big. Why, a girl could just get lost for Days wandering around the corridors without someone to show her were to go."  
  
"Quite so," Quan agreed, seemingly impervious to her sarcasm. "Why, I got lost once myself. Can you imagine? Lost aboard my own ship. But don't tell any of the crew about that."  
  
"Oh, of course not," Atiena agreed, "I wouldn't want to undermine their confidence in their superior officer or anything."  
  
Quan cast a Suspicious Glance at her, then Chuckled Amiably. "How is the work going on your...lens...thing?"  
  
"The Hakubi Trans-spatial Diffraction Lens?" Atiena asked, the name rolling easily off her tongue quite on purpose. "Very well. We should have it ready for the first smoke test in another day."  
  
"Smoke test?"  
  
"Where we turn it on to see if anything starts smoking," Atiena explained, thinking that using that particular phrase was probably a bad idea.  
  
"I assume that that would be bad?"  
  
"Yes, Quan. Generally if the project catches fire, you've done something wrong."  
  
"Interesting," Quan said, managing by some minor feat to actually sound interested. "All that technical jargon... I'm afraid I'm simply not an engineer, Atiena. It is a pleasure having someone so charming to explain these things to me, really. So often University people are...distasteful. Present company excluded, of course-"  
  
"Of course," Atiena agreed, suppressing another eye roll.  
  
"But having such a witty, personable young woman to deal with... It makes this difficult situation so much easier to handle. Why, I can't imagine what would have happened were I to have to deal with someone like your under-professor Kittan for the duration of this ordeal-"  
  
"Look, Quan," Atiena interrupted, stopping in the hallway. "Are you going to ask me to sleep with you or not?"  
  
Quan blinked. "Wh-what? Atiena, I would never- I am an officer in the Royal Fleet of Jurai. We Do have some standards, you know. I do not simply go about propositioning young women-"  
  
"I'm probably older than you are, Quan. You're kind of cute, and I've never been with a Fleet captain. A Guardian, once, but never Fleet. So if you want to, come out and say it. I Hate screwing around with dates and innuendo and double-talk. If you want to have sex, say so. If not, let's cut the bullshit and get to work, alright?"  
  
"Atiena-"  
  
"Last chance, Quan. I'm counting to three, then I'm going back to my ship. If you don't speak up now I'm going to assume you are only interested in a professional relationship. Face it, Quan. You're Fleet, I'm University. There can never be anything between us. The last person who tried it was Prof. Hakubi, and it didn't even work out for Her. You and your boys are out here light-years away from port and you get a little lonely. I understand. I'm not half bad looking, I know, so you get a little hot under that pastel collar of yours, right? If you want to do it, say so. I'm not Totally opposed to the concept, but I'm Not going to pretend I'm in love with you to do it. No more dinners, no more half-suggestions. We'll be out here a couple weeks together, maybe we'll have some fun, then it's over. So either speak up, or shut up, Captain Takima."  
  
"I don't-"  
  
Atiena held up a finger and said threateningly, "One..."  
  
"It's simply not-"  
  
"...two..."  
  
"Listen, Atiena, I am a captain of the Royal Fleet. I cannot simply-"  
  
"...three. Sorry Quan, it might've been fun. I've heard Fleet boys have big trees." Atiena tossed her hair and walked off, leaving Captain Takima staring after her, still stammering about propriety. She paused at the turning of the passageway and called back, "I'll have a status report on the Lens for you tomorrow, Captain. Goodnight."  
  
* * *  
  
"Guest at the door."  
  
Sasami looked up at the door, seeing Aeka on the little monitor beside it. Her sister looked nervous. *Probably coming to yell at me about Ponua some more,* Sasami thought sadly. *Guess I deserve it.*  
  
"Open," Sasami commanded and the door slid open silently.   
  
"Sasami," Aeka began, "I- I wanted to--"  
  
"I'm sorry," Sasami sighed. "I was wrong, before. You're right about me and Ponua. It was stupid, and I shouldn't have said- what I said. I already called Mom, she said she took care of it."  
  
Aeka blinked, mouth moving silently for a moment. "Sasami- that is... That was very mature of you."  
  
Sasami shook her head silently.  
  
"I'm sorry for how I reacted to your question. You're a grown woman now and I suppose I should expect questions like that."  
  
"It's okay. I know how you feel about that stuff, I shouldn't have asked."  
  
"No," Aeka insisted, "if you need my help with something you should have it. I just-"  
  
"Guest at the door," announced the automated voice of the ship.  
  
Aeka turned to look at the door. Vianna's head and shoulders were visible on the display beside the doorway. The woman glared up at the camera as they watched, then glanced up and down the hallway.  
  
"Open," Sasami ordered, thinking that Vianna probably would not just go away.  
  
"Sasami," Vianna said even before the door was fully opened, "I need to speak with- Aeka. I did not know you would be here."  
  
"What is it Vianna?" Sasami asked irritably.  
  
"I need to speak with you," Vianna explained.  
  
"Not now, Vianna. I'm talking with Aeka. We were about to order room service, right Aeka?"  
  
Aeka glanced at her sister questioningly, then nodded and said, "Yes, Vianna. We were about to have some dessert sent up. Perhaps you can speak with Sasami later?"  
  
Vianna narrowed her eyes slightly but nodded. "Very well."  
  
"And Vianna," Sasami added as the woman turned to leave, "do not listen at the door."  
  
"I would not-"  
  
"You're a bad liar, Vianna," Sasami said coldly. "If you Must wait outside my door, do so on the other side of the hall."  
  
For a moment Vianna looked as though she were about to growl and Sasami wondered if she had, perhaps, gone too far.   
  
"Fine," Vianna snapped, stepped through the doorway and touching it shut behind her.  
  
"Sasami?" Aeka asked curiously.  
  
Sasami shook her head. "Why did Mom have to send her?"  
  
"You're an adult now," Aeka pointed out. "You need protection and for some reason mother chose her over Guardians."  
  
"I don't need protection," Sasami argued. "I can protect myself, and there's nobody after me anyway."  
  
"As a member of the House Jurai you must-"   
  
Aeka paused and sighed. "I'm sorry, Sasami. I go on about what you must do a lot, don't I? Yousho did that when I was your age. He's certainly changed, hasn't he? And doesn't he look handsome now?" Aeka shook her head, pausing again. "I'm sorry, Sasami. I am- I'm nervous. But if Vianna is to be with us you should try to at least get along with her."  
  
Sasami snorted angrily. "I don't think that's possible, Aeka. She's so- so full of herself. And she says she has never had the Lessons. She Must be lying."  
  
"She said that?" Aeka asked, looking toward the closed door. "That Is odd."  
  
Sasami shook herself and went to the comm screen in the corner of her cabin. "What do you want to order from room service?"'  
  
"You meant that?" Aeka asked. "I thought we were just getting rid of Vianna."  
  
"We were," Sasami agreed. "But I could use some cake. And we haven't- I guess I haven't really tried to spend much time with you lately. Everything's just been so confusing since- since Eto left me."  
  
"Cake sounds good. Sasami? Why don't you...tell me about Eto? I'm afraid that besides Yousho and...Shiko I haven't had any boyfriends. Marriage interviews, but no real boyfriends. But I'll listen, if you want to talk."  
  
Sasami bit her lip and looked down at the floor, trying to decide if it was worth trying. It would be nice being able to talk to Aeka again. Sasami could not remember the last time she had been able to ask her sister about anything really important.  
  
"Okay," Sasami said a moment later, smiling at her sister. "That'd be nice."  
  
* * *  
  
"Mom? Are you in here?"  
  
Ryouko poked her head around another cluster of tubes, looking for Washuu. There was a tracking program for the mammoth, labyrinthine complex that was her laboratory, but it was hardly precise. Washuu said that she had never bothered to fine tune it because she did not use it. Whatever it was that she Did use, though, Ryouko had no idea how to operate. So she knew that her mother was somewhere in the area, but that could be a mile away or right around the corner.  
  
"Ryouko?"   
  
She turned, finding the red-haired, older woman sitting on a floating cushion not ten feet away with a semi-transparent computer terminal floating before her.  
  
"There you are," Ryouko sighed. "I've been wandering around in here for an hour."  
  
"I'm sorry," Washuu said sincerely. "I didn't even know you were back. How was Yall?"  
  
"Great," Ryouko said, smiling, as she approached her mother. "It was wonderful, and Tenchi had a good time too. We're going back on our honeymoon."  
  
"Oh?" Washuu asked curiously. "I thought it was off to Dalris and Oon?"  
  
Ryouko nodded. "We're going to go to all three. Tenchi really wants to see the galaxy, now that he's had a little taste."  
  
Washuu chuckled. "The old explorer's bug. I knew he'd get it, once he got off this dirtball. Tenchi's not the kind of guy to spend his whole life on one planet."  
  
Ryouko smiled, eyes looking off into the unseen distance. "We're talking about moving to Jurai, one day. Tenchi wants to take classes in living architecture at the University branch there." Ryouko shook her head then, focusing back on her mother. "But that's not why I'm here, Mom. I- I needed to talk to you about something."  
  
"Sure," Washuu replied indulgently, summoning up another cushion for her daughter. "Talk away."  
  
Ryouko sat down and stared at her hands, fiddling idly with her fingers in her lap while composing her thoughts. Washuu waited quietly, knowing this to be one of the times when Ryouko needed her to be silent. It was a long, difficult process learning the little cues that told her when her daughter needed a silent companion, when she needed someone to be talkative and supportive, and when she just wanted a shoulder to lean on. But it was worth it all for Washuu to see a smile on Ryouko's face and know that she had helped put it there.  
  
"Mom... Can you... Is there any kind of pregnancy test you can use on me?"  
  
"Of course," Washuu agreed, stifling an urge to reach for her terminal. "Why, Ryouko? I thought you and Tenchi were being extra careful?"  
  
"We- we were. But I-" Ryouko sighed. "That night when we disappeared back to Earth... We had a fight. Afterward we- we didn't use anything. I really wanted it, then, and I- I don't regret it. And since then... Tenchi bought condoms when we got the sake, but he hasn't opened the box. He's tried, but I stopped him."  
  
"If it was your decision and he's okay," Washuu asked, not sure how to respond to this situation, "what's wrong? You both knew there was a chance you might get pregnant if you did that, Ryouko. And you were so adamant about not risking it before, if you convinced Tenchi to have unprotected sex, you must have changed your mind."  
  
Ryouko nodded. "I- I did, I guess. Having a baby with Tenchi would be wonderful. I can imagine playing with it and teaching it and Tenchi and I taking her all over the galaxy with us... But actually Being pregnant... I'm not ready, Mom. I think I might be, and I just can't handle it."  
  
"Does Tenchi know?"  
  
"No," Ryouko sighed, "I haven't told him."  
  
"Why not?"  
  
"Because I'm not sure. If I Am pregnant then I'll talk to him. I- I can have an abortion, can't I? That's possible right?"  
  
Washuu nodded silently and her daughter went on, "But if it's nothing... I don't want to upset him."  
  
"When did you have unprotected intercourse?" Washuu asked, pulling her floating terminal around in front of her.  
  
"The first time? Or the last time?"  
  
"Both," Washuu said, tapping a few keys.  
  
"The first time was... ten days ago. The last time was about seven hours ago."  
  
Washuu sighed and closed her terminal. "Ryouko, I can't help you."  
  
Ryouko blinked in confusion and asked, "What? Why not? I thought- you said you could run a test and tell me..."  
  
"Your body chemistry isn't like a typical human's Ryouko," Washuu explained, pinching the bridge of her nose. "Your cellular cycle is way off from what anyone else in the galaxy would expect to have. There's absolutely no way for me to tell if you're pregnant except by actually detecting a blastocyst in your womb, and in your body that will take over a month to form. If you conceived the very first time, and I don't have to tell you the odds of that, I couldn't tell you about it for at least another twenty-two days."  
  
Ryouko sighed, deflating, and stared at the floor.  
  
"But Ryouko... Whatever you're feeling, it's not pregnancy. You might be imagining symptoms out of a desire to Be pregnant, but there is no way for you to actually be exhibiting them yet. What sort of things have you felt?"  
  
Ryouko was silent for a long few moments, then said, "Weakness, nausea, a little light-headedness."  
  
"I'm sorry," Washuu sighed, "but it can't be symptoms of a real pregnancy, Ryouko. It's just not possible. I know mothers usually think they can tell before any doctor can tell them, but your body isn't the same as most women. You won't experience any of those things until nearly the end of the first trimester."  
  
"I- I won't? At all?"  
  
"No," Washuu agreed. "The fetus will develop more slowly than in a normal woman's body because it will actually be composed of massu-based cellular structures. Part of your reproductive system is a sort of massu hot-bed. When one of your eggs is fertilized, it kicks in and starts pumping out massu raw material to use in building the baby. If you and Tenchi have a child, she will have all the powers you do without your gems because she'll have nearly the same physiology you do. Her genetic pattern will be different since it will include parts of Tenchi's dna, but she'll be made of massu-cells, not regular cells. But even I couldn't make massu breed at the rate that regular cells undergo mitosis, so for you a full-term pregnancy would last twenty months."  
  
"T-twenty?" Ryouko asked, her eyes widening as Washuu talked.  
  
"Yes," the scientist agreed. "But after the first six I could remove the fetus and place it in an artificial womb. Then it could either be allowed to develop naturally using blood drawn from you and some regular nutrients, or I could infuse it with fresh massu from my holding tank and speed the maturation process to something closer to a normal child."  
  
"I- I never thought..."  
  
"You thought you would get pregnant and have a baby the same as anyone else? I'm sorry, Ryouko. I tried to make sure you could have the healthiest, most wonderful little baby I possibly could, and I tried to make the process as close to normal as I could; but you can't have it both ways. It's really not That different, anyway. Jurains leave their children in gestation until a physical age of a year and a half, and there are a number of races within the Empire that have natural gestation periods ranging into the years rather than months."  
  
"But you can tell me in twenty-two days?" Ryouko asked.  
  
"I can."  
  
"And- and if I want to have an abortion... How long..."  
  
"If the fetus develops naturally in your body? Nine months. After that I wouldn't risk it. The link with your biochemistry would be too tight and aborting the fetus would risk shutting down your cellular respiratory cycle."  
  
"And if I... If you took it out?"  
  
"Any time up to thirteen months. After that the child is capable of sentience and couldn't be willfully destroyed. That's Jurain law, not mine, but I won't break it."  
  
"So I have time to decide?"  
  
Washuu nodded seriously. "But we don't know if there's a decision to make, Ryouko. Don't worry about what you'll do if you're pregnant until we know. And talk to Tenchi. He should know that you think you might be, even if it's impossible to find out."  
  
"I- I don't want to worry him, Mom. You know Tenchi, he'll get all hyper about it."  
  
"He should know," Washuu insisted. "And you'll feel better if you're not holding it in, won't you?"  
  
Ryouko sighed. "Yeah, I guess."  
  
"Good, so you'll talk to him?"  
  
"I will," Ryouko said, nodding. "Mom?"  
  
"Hmm?"  
  
"If- if I'm not pregnant, could you make me a pill or whatever to turn off my reproductive system like you said? I mean, that's reversible, right?"  
  
Washuu nodded. "It would be, and yes, I can make a pill to do that. But I won't give it to you until after we know you aren't pregnant. That'll be a month from now."  
  
"A month? I thought you said twenty-two days?"  
  
"Minimum," Washuu agreed. "But if you were impregnated on any occasion after the first it will not show up on a test for thirty-two days from the moment of ejaculation. If you had intercourse seven hours ago, it will be over a month until we know if that one took."  
  
"Why can't I have the pill now, while we wait?"  
  
"If you took it now it would be equivalent to an abortion, Ryouko. Your reproductive system would shut down and the developing blastocyst would be re-absorbed into your body. If you decide that you don't want to continue the pregnancy, if you Are pregnant, then that's one thing and I'll support you. No baby should be born if her parents are not one hundred percent sure they want her, that's just common sense. But I won't let you abort before you even know if there's something To abort. That wouldn't be fair to you. How would you feel if you took the pill right now, and never knew if you were pregnant at all?"  
  
"Pretty bad," Ryouko sighed. "I'd always wonder what she would have been like, if she existed."  
  
"You want a little girl, don't you?" Washuu asked, voice softening from her professional tone back to that of a mother and confidant.  
  
"Yeah," Ryouko agreed quietly. "I want to have a daughter. She'd be just like Sasami."  
  
Washuu smiled gently and touched her daughter's hand. "I'm sure she would."  
  
"But not yet," Ryouko said, voice still soft. "I'm not ready yet. I can think about it now, but I- I couldn't handle it, Mom. One day I'll be able to, but not yet."  
  
Washuu nodded. "If you're not ready, you're not ready. Nobody can tell you when is the right time except you, Ryouko. But talk to Tenchi. If he's ready and you're not, he should know that. Before it's time to decide what to do about an abortion."  
  
Ryouko nodded. "You're right, Mom. I'll talk to him tonight. But I don't think he's ready either. He said he wasn't, and he's been nervous about getting my pregnant every time. Is there- is there Anything you can give me right now? That won't hurt the- the baby? If there is one, I mean?"  
  
"Something?" Washuu asked. "For what?"  
  
"For- for me and Tenchi."  
  
"I thought you said he bought condoms?"  
  
"He did," Ryouko agreed, "but--"  
  
"You don't want to go back to using them," Washuu finished, fighting a grin. "It doesn't feel the same, does it?"  
  
"No," Ryouko agreed, blushing. "It's--"  
  
"I know," Washuu sighed, releasing a soft chuckle that she did not think would upset her daughter. "When- when my first husband and I were still together... He was stationed on a world like Earth; undercover work for the Fleet and the GP together when they were trying to bust some kind of smugglers. We were talking about having children, so I'd gone from the injection to regular pills. The assignment ran longer than I thought and I was out of contraceptive medicine with no way to get any more. So we had to use the local stuff." Washuu chuckled again and patted Ryouko's hand. "It's almost not worth it, if you have to use those things."  
  
"Almost," Ryouko agreed, grinning slightly through the flush coloring her cheeks.  
  
"I'll put something together for you," Washuu promised. "Think you can abstain for a day or two? Or not... It's up to you."  
  
"I think we can," Ryouko said, smiling softly. "Thanks Mom."  
  
"Any time, honey."  
  
Ryouko hugged her mother tightly, then sat back and squeezed her eyes shut while summoning up one of the little floating terminals for herself. She ordered hot tea and sipped delicately when it arrived from subspace.  
  
"So tell me about Yall," Washuu requested, tapping away at her terminal. "I haven't been there in... Come to think of it, I've never been there. I saw the falls in simulation, though."  
  
"It's beautiful," Ryouko sighed. She reached into the pocket of her blouse and took out a print of the photo she and Tenchi had had taken with his disposable camera. "This was at the falls. You should go some time, Mom. Maybe take Grandpa."  
  
"He's Grandpa now?" Washuu asked, taking the photograph and smiling at it. Her daughter was happier much more often in the past year than she had been before, but moments of such clear elation as that caught in the image were still rare enough to be special.  
  
Ryouko blushed and nodded. "Tenchi's my husband now, so Katsuhito is my grandfather. I always thought it was kind of silly, calling him that before, but it feels right now. I think- I think I'd like to get to know him. I've been kind of distant with him...all the time, I guess."  
  
"Understandable," Washuu said, returning the picture and going back to her keys. "He Did lock you up."  
  
"It was for my own good, though," Ryouko said absently, looking down at the picture in her hands. "I think I can forgive him for it, now that Tenchi and I are together for good. And if you two--"  
  
"What would you call him then?" Washuu asked curiously.  
  
"I don't know... Probably Grandpa. Tenchi was my husband first."  
  
Washuu chuckled. "That'd make me Tenchi's grandmother and his mother, and you would be his aunt, wife, and sister. We'd be like real Jurains." She winked and Ryouko laughed softly.   
  
"I'll have to have a boy and a girl so we can have them get married. I've never understood how they could do that. Wouldn't it be weird, making love with someone you grew up with like that?"  
  
Washuu shrugged. "I'm not Jurain, Ryouko. Ask Aeka, if you really want to know, but I don't think it's too weird for them. It's normal in their society, so children aren't raised the way they are on Earth or on most worlds. When they grow up, they're not taught that their siblings are taboo for relationships, so they see them as sexual beings as much as anyone else. You know there have been a number of instances of tri or quad marriages where a couple's child joined the union?"  
  
"Really?" Ryouko asked, stunned.  
  
"Mmm," Washuu agreed. "Not at a young age, of course. The only ones I've heard of, the 'child' was well over a thousand in every case. I suppose that by then a man can look at his mother and see her as a beautiful woman without thinking of his childhood."  
  
Ryouko shuddered slightly and shook her head. "I guess I've been around Tenchi too long, Mom. I just can't imagine that. Siblings... I can understand that, I guess. The taboo here on Earth seems to all be based around genetics, after all. But parents and children? That's just..."  
  
"Sick?" Washuu asked curiously. "Don't be closed-minded, Ryouko. Just because it isn't what you're used to doesn't make it wrong."  
  
"I'll try... But you'd better not try to get Tenchi to agree to make a quad with me, you, him, and Grandpa."  
  
Washuu laughed. "Don't worry, I want Kat all to myself. Besides, Tenchi would never go for it. I don't think he could even have handled a tri with you and Aeka."  
  
"Neither could I," Ryouko sighed. "I feel bad for Aeka, Mom. I mean, I can't wish she had gotten Tenchi instead... But I wish she had somebody."  
  
"Could invite her to join you two," Washuu pointed out. "You'd get used to it eventually."  
  
"I don't think so," Ryouko said doubtfully. "Aeka's not so bad once you get to know her... But I couldn't do that. Tenchi would never go for it, I think he's the only human male who's never fantasized about having two women at once."  
  
"He hasn't?" Washuu asked. "He's probably lying, you know. Most men won't admit to it and I've never met one who didn't want to try it."  
  
"Nope," Ryouko said with a hint of pride. "He doesn't. I know."  
  
"If you say so."  
  
"But even if he did... I couldn't, Mom. I'm just not- I couldn't even make love with a man who wasn't Tenchi, much less with a woman. Especially Aeka. She's a friend, but I--"  
  
"It's okay, Ryouko, you don't have to explain yourself to me. I wasn't serious anyway. Aeka will find someone eventually, but Jurains can mourn for a long time when they want to. Tenchi may not be dead, but she'll be mourning her chances with him for a while, I think."  
  
Ryouko nodded. "I wish there were some way to cheer her up. She's doing better now, but she's still not the same old Aeka."  
  
"I don't think she ever will be," Washuu said gently. "She's been through a lot, Ryouko. People change when they have experiences like Aeka has. She'll be full of life as she ever was eventually, but I don't think she'll ever be the same woman she used to be."  
  
"That's sad," Ryouko sighed.  
  
"Not really. Change isn't always bad, Ryouko. You've changed for the better, haven't you? Anyone looking at you now two years ago wouldn't believe you were the same person. Aeka is different and will probably keep changing before she's done... But it doesn't have to be bad."  
  
Ryouko nodded thoughtfully, then rose from her floating cushion. "I'm going to go find Tenchi and talk to him. Then I think I might see if Aeka wants to go into town for lunch. I haven't done anything with her in a while."  
  
"Have fun," Washuu said with a smile, patting her daughter's hip.  
  
"Thanks again, Mom. I'm really glad we're- I'm glad you--"  
  
"Me too," Washuu said, agreeing with Ryouko's confused sentiment.  
  
* * *  
  
"Tenchi, I think I'm pregnant."  
  
Ryouko shook her head, that was no good at all.  
  
"Tenchi?" She tried again, looking at herself in the mirror while she spoke, "I think I might be pregnant."  
  
*No, too indecisive."  
  
"Tenchi," Ryouko said firmly, "I'm pregnant."  
  
*Too decisive. I'm not even sure yet.*  
  
"Tenchi, honey? You know how you we had sex without a condom? Well--"  
  
*Ugh, definitely not.*  
  
"Tenchi! You'll never believe... It's so wonderful... I might be...pregnant!"  
  
*Yeach, too... Mihoshi.*  
  
"Tenchi, my love? I think- I think I may be having your child."  
  
*Too Aeka.*  
  
"Tenchi? Your sperm may have fertilized-"  
  
*Ick, Way too Mom.*  
  
"Well big boy, looks like you might've knocked me up."  
  
*Too old-me.*  
  
"If it's a girl, we should name her-"  
  
Ryouko shook her head, this was not going well at all. She had intended to have a whole speech ready for Tenchi when she went to talk to him but could not even get past the first line.  
  
"Tenchi?" Ryouko tried one last time, "I think I might be-"  
  
The door slid open and Tenchi entered, interrupting Ryouko's rehearsal.  
  
"Oh, hi honey. You think you might be what?"  
  
Ryouko gaped at Tenchi as he crossed the bedroom and poked around in his closet for a moment before removing his gi. He pulled off his shirt and turned to look at her, unbuttoning his pants. "Well?"  
  
"Tenchi, I-"   
  
Ryouko took a deep breath, then pushed on in one quick burst of words, "Tenchi, I think I might be pregnant."  
  
Tenchi's hands froze on his zipper and he stared at her, unmoving, for what seemed a very, very long time to Ryouko.  
  
"Did- did you hear me?" She asked nervously. "I- I think I'm pregnant, Tenchi. I might be having your baby."  
  
"B-b-b--"  
  
"Baby," Ryouko agreed to Tenchi's stammer. "But I'm not sure. Mom says we won't know for twenty-two to thirty-two days because of my body chemistry."  
  
"P-p-pre--"  
  
"Pregnant," Ryouko finished. "But I'm not sure."  
  
"But I," Tenchi protested, making incoherent motions with his hands, "We- When I--"  
  
"Tenchi, honey?" Ryouko asked worriedly, crossing the room to stand in front of him. "I'm sorry I made you not wear a condom. I- I didn't think... And now-"  
  
"I didn't know- You said- Pregnant?"  
  
Ryouko nodded. "We had sex without using anything. That's the leading cause of pregnancy, last time I checked."  
  
"Ryouko," Tenchi gasped, "how- how can you joke about this?"  
  
"I'm sorry," Ryouko sighed. "I'm just- I'm so nervous, Tenchi. I knew I shouldn't tell you until I knew for sure. Now you're going to get all worried and you're mad at me for making you-"  
  
"Honey?" Tenchi interrupted, putting one hand on Ryouko's shoulder and tilting her chin up with the other. "I'm not mad."  
  
"Promise?" Ryouko asked, looking at him searchingly.  
  
"Promise," Tenchi agreed. "I knew this could happen when I- I was just...startled. That's all. You said we'll know in a month?"  
  
Ryouko nodded. "Thirty-two days from the last time we made love."  
  
"And if- if you are--"  
  
"I can have an abortion," Ryouko agreed to her husband's unspoken question. "If we- if we want to, I mean. Mom says she can make me a pill."  
  
Tenchi shook his head and sat down on their bed. "Ryouko, I- I'm sorry. This is just so--"  
  
"I know," Ryouko agreed, sitting beside him. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner, honey. I wasn't sure, and I- until Yall I didn't even really suspect. I thought it was just Jurain food disagreeing with me or something. But Mom says that I can't possibly be feeling pregnant yet, so that's just my imagination."  
  
"So- you don't really have any reason to suspect?"  
  
"No," Ryouko sighed. "I'm so sorry, Tenchi. I guess- I guess now that I'm starting to think maybe having a baby would be okay... I just sort of wished it could happen right away."  
  
"Do you- do you want it to? I mean, if you're pregnant, do you want to keep it?"  
  
Ryouko sighed and looked down at the floor. "What do you want, Tenchi? Do you want me to keep it, if I'm pregnant?"  
  
"I- Ryouko, I--"  
  
"You don't."  
  
  
"No, it's not that," Tenchi protested. "I just- I'm not ready to be a father yet, honey. I mean, we're still in school. I guess with the money from Aeka it doesn't matter if I ever get a job... But I-" Tenchi sighed. "It's selfish, I know, but you know how important school is to me. I don't want to just drop out, and I'd have to to help you while you're pregnant and then to help take care of the baby. But if you're really pregnant and you want to keep her- we can. I don't have to go to school, or I can wait until she's old enough or something. I- I don't really Feel ready, but if you do I think I can be."  
  
"She?" Ryouko asked curiously.  
  
"Yeah," Tenchi agreed, smiling and rubbing his neck in embarrassment. "I- I guess I'd like to have a little girl."  
  
"I'm not ready," Ryouko said, staring into his eyes. "I'm sorry, Tenchi. If I'm pregnant, I can't keep it. I just can't handle this yet, honey. I'm ready to be your wife and to be a human for you- but I'm not ready to be a mother yet. I'd be pregnant for twenty months, Tenchi. I don't want to drop out of school either, and I'd have to if I was pregnant for two years."  
  
Tenchi took her hands gently and smiled supportively. "It's okay, Ryouko. If you're pregnant- it's not our daughter. Our daughter will be born when we're both ready and we can give her a good home. It's just- just some cells, right? You can take the pill and we'll just forget this happened."  
  
Ryouko nodded, trying to feel the way she thought she should. "I- I guess so."  
  
Tenchi sighed. "You don't want to have an abortion, do you?"  
  
"I- Tenchi- I can't give up your baby, Tenchi. Even if I'm not ready. She's Your baby. Yours and mine. We made love and made her. I can't just--"  
  
Tenchi tilted her chin up again and kissed her once, lightly. "We'll make it work, honey. Somehow."  
  
Ryouko looked down again, touching her stomach. "I'm probably not pregnant anyway," she sighed. "I'm probably just worrying us both over nothing."  
  
Tenchi placed his hand over Ryouko's and kissed her again. "If you're worried, I want to be worried too. But let's not worry about it until we know, okay?"  
  
Ryouko nodded. "I'll try. But, Tenchi... If I- if I'm pregnant for real... If I don't have an abortion, what will you do?"  
  
"What do you mean?"  
  
"You- you said you're not ready to be a father yet. If I have our baby, will you--"  
  
"I'll love her," Tenchi promised. "How could I ever not love her? I love you. Even if I'm not totally ready, of Course I'm going to love our little girl. I'll spoil her rotten and teach her to be a little tomboy, and then when she starts dating I'll worry myself sick and hate every guy she brings home."  
  
Ryouko laughed softly and squeezed Tenchi's hands. "You're too wonderful."  
  
"No I'm not," Tenchi demurred.  
  
"Yes you are," Ryouko insisted. "That's why I love you so much, you wonderful, wonderful man. I- don't hate me for it, Tenchi, but I hope I'm not pregnant. When we have our baby I want us both to be a hundred percent ready, like Mom said we should be. And I- I'm just not, honey. But if I'm pregnant, I'll have her and love her and I Know we'll make it work because she'll have such a great dad."  
  
"I don't hate you," Tenchi promised. "I feel exactly the same way, Ryouko. And she'll have a great mom, too. Though she'll probably say she hates you when she's a teenager."  
  
"She will?" Ryouko asked curiously.  
  
Tenchi nodded sagely. "Every boy she brings home will want her mother."  
  
Ryouko blushed and smacked Tenchi lightly on the shoulder. "Tenchi! Besides, I won't be any competition for our daughter. She'll be beautiful."  
  
"Of course she will," Tenchi agreed gently.  
  
"She'll be just like Sasami," Ryouko sighed, gently stroking Tenchi's hands and looking down at her lap.  
  
"You really love her, don't you?"  
  
"Don't you?" Ryouko asked curiously, looking up at her husband.  
  
"Yeah," Tenchi sighed. "Yeah, I guess I do. And you're right. Our little girl will be just like her. Maybe not quite as pretty, though."  
  
"Tenchi!" Ryouko gasped, touching her stomach. "Don't talk about our little girl that way!"  
  
He laughed. "I'm only saying... I don't want her attracting boys the way Sammy does. And my daughter isn't wearing those sorts of clothes, either. Have you seen that little plaid skirt she has? You can see her panties, I swear you can."  
  
"You Would look," Ryouko baited. "And our daughter will be every bit as pretty as Sammy, and wear whatever she wants to. And I'll have you know that she borrowed that skirt from Me."  
  
"She did?" Tenchi asked, looking at Ryouko in wonder. "I've never seen you in it."  
  
"I got it a long time ago," Ryouko explained. "Back when you were still in highscool. I got a whole school uniform. I was going to come up and offer to help you study, but Aeka caught me. We got in a fight and she told me if I did it she'd take pictures of me and give them to your dad."  
  
Tenchi chuckled. "I'm glad those days are over."  
  
"Me too," Ryouko said with feeling, remembering Tenchi in the bathtub, razor against his wrist. "I'm sorry for what we put you through."  
  
Tenchi shook his head. "It's alright. That's all over now, and I've got you."  
  
Ryouko smiled and hugged Tenchi hard. "I love you," she whispered, kissing his ear.  
  
"Love you too," Tenchi returned, squeezing her once before releasing and going to retrieve his gi from the floor where it had fallen.  
  
"Going to go exercise?" Ryouko asked, watching her husband strip to his underwear and begin pulling on the uniform.  
  
"Yeah," Tenchi agreed. "I haven't in a week, Grandpa would say I'm slacking off. Maybe I'll go up to the shrine and see if he's up for sparring."  
  
"Katsuhito? Is he ever not?"  
  
Tenchi chuckled. "Yeah, but he's got your mom now. He'll probably be busy more often."  
  
"You could stay here and...exercise...with me," Ryouko offered, running a finger seductively down the center of her blouse.  
  
"Now how can I possibly turn that down?" Tenchi asked, walking to Ryouko's side and leaning down for a kiss.  
  
When their lips parted Ryouko sighed. "I'm sorry Tenchi, I forgot. We- we can't right now."  
  
Tenchi frowned. "Why not? I mean, if you don't want to-"  
  
"It's not that," Ryouko said quickly, "I do, it's just... I don't want to use condoms anymore and Mom said it'll be a couple of days until she can make us something else."  
  
"Are they really That bad?" Tenchi asked. "I mean, I know how it feels for me, but I didn't think it made that much of a difference for you."   
  
Ryouko nodded and grinned up at him. "I knew I couldn't go back after the first time."  
  
Tenchi blushed but kissed her again anyway. "Alright, so no sex for a couple of days." He grinned and added, "It'll be hard, but I Think we can do it."  
  
"In a couple of days?" Ryouko asked innocently. "I certainly Hope it's hard... We waited a whole week, now after waiting Again-"  
  
"Ryouko," Tenchi chuckled, "that's not what I meant."  
  
"I know," Ryouko agreed, rising to her feet. "Go play with Grandpa, Tenchi. I think I'm going to go see if Aeka wants to go into town for lunch. You don't need the car for anything, do you?"  
  
"Don't think so," Tenchi agreed. "You girls have fun."  
  
Ryouko nodded. "I hope we will. I worry about Aeka sometimes."  
  
"Me too," Tenchi agreed. "But I just saw her downstairs. She was playing some Jurain card game with Sasami and looked about as happy as I remember ever seeing her."  
  
"Really? That's great. She hasn't spent much time with Sammy since she went to Jurai, I was afraid she was upset with how I'd let her act."  
  
"They looked like they were getting along to me.   
  
"Alright, I'm going to get going or by the time I get up the hill we won't have time to spar before lunch."  
  
Ryouko nodded and kissed him goodbye. Tenchi gave her a parting squeeze and smiled before walking out the door.  
  
* * *  
  
"Tenchi! Just the man I was hoping to see."  
  
"Hey Dad," Tenchi called in greeting, pausing in his jog up the shrine stairs. "What're you doing up here?"  
  
"I was just up on the hill," Nobuyuki explained. That was, Tenchi knew, his way of referring to Achika's grave. He never called it that, he said it made it sound like she was really there instead of just her body. "I wanted to tell your mother the good news."  
  
"Good news?" Tenchi asked.  
  
"About your wedding!" Nobuyuki beamed and gripped his son in a one-armed hug. "I'm so proud of you Tenchi! I knew you'd settle down and pick a girl one day. My son, a married man! Your mother would be so happy."  
  
Tenchi smiled and hugged his father back. Not so long ago, he reflected, he would have been embarrassed by his father's display of affection. "Thanks Dad."  
  
"So when are you going to make me a grandfather Tenchi?" Nobuyuki asked. "Will your children have blue hair like Ryouko? That would be interesting. Just think how cute they'll be!"  
  
Tenchi smiled weakly. "I don't know Dad. We're not- we're not really ready yet. Ryouko and I want to finish school first before we think about a family." Tenchi thought it would be best to keep Ryouko's news between them until they new for sure one way or another.  
  
"Of course," Nobuyuki agreed, sobering. "Your mother and I felt the same way, Tenchi. You know we were married while we were in college too. I wanted her to have a fine house to raise our son in. We knew we would have a boy, you know. We both wanted a son." Nobuyuki sighed. "We were going to have a little girl next. But Achika- your mother got sick and--"  
  
Tenchi nodded. His mother was diagnosed with cancer only a year after he was born. There was something that had been nagging at his subconscious for years, but he had never dared ask. "Dad? Did- did Mom know? About Jurai, I mean?"  
  
Nobuyuki nodded silently, eyes staring off into the middle distance. "She knew. Your grandfather taught her about it when she was young. He thought she would go back to Jurai one day."  
  
"Then- why didn't she, Dad? After Tokimi's slave attacked me and Ai put me back together, they said I had severe internal bleeding but they fixed it in minutes. Couldn't they have gotten rid of Mom's cancer?"  
  
"No," Nobuyuki sighed. "We- we thought that too. When you were three we decided to go to Jurai. Your mother didn't think that Dad would like the idea, so we contacted the Fleet through Funaho late at night. They sent a Jurain doctor right to our house the next week. He said that the Empress Funaho sent her greetings and that she felt it would be best if the initial diagnosis was made on Earth. I guess it would have caused a lot of political unrest if we went there and everyone suddenly found out that their Lord Yousho not only wasn't dead, he had a daughter who was married to an Earth man."  
  
"So- what happened?" Tenchi asked curiously.  
  
Nobuyuki sighed and shook his head sadly. "Jurains don't have cancer, Tenchi. Their biology... It's different somehow. The doctor said that things like that had been defeated on Jurai hundreds of thousands of years ago and defenses were built into every Jurain's body. But your mother- she was the daughter of a half-Jurain and an Earthling. Her defenses weren't quite good enough, I guess. The doctor gave her some medicine for her pain and some more to slow the growth of the cancer, but he didn't know how to fix it."  
  
"Couldn't they find out?" Tenchi asked. "Or take her back and let the trees heal her, like they did for me?"  
  
"I don't know, Tenchi," Nobuyuki sighed. "The doctor- he was nice, but I don't think he liked Achika. Most Jurains still don't like us. Us Earthlings, I mean. They don't like Funaho being on the throne, but they can't say anything about it. Maybe there was something they could have done and they just didn't try hard enough. Maybe there really was nothing they could do. I don't know. But that was all a long time ago, Tenchi. It's over and done and wishing it hadn't happened won't make it better."  
  
*Wow,* Tenchi thought, staring at his father, *I've never heard him talk this way before. Usually he almost pretends Mom is still alive, or won't talk about how she died. He's never seemed so...accepting before.*  
  
"There's something your mother and I want you to have," Nobuyuki said, reaching into his pocket. He chuckled. "Well, I want you to have it, and I think she would. I guess it's kind of selfish of me, really."   
  
Tenchi took the little ring box from his father and looked between it and him curiously. "What is it, Dad?"  
  
"Open it," Nobuyuki instructed, gesturing at the box.  
  
Tenchi opened it as instructed, frowning in puzzlement at the tiny wooden plaque inside. "What- what is it?"  
  
"It's a Jurain totem," Nobuyuki explained. "They- I don't know how much you know about how they worship Tsunami..."  
  
"Not much," Tenchi said, looking down at the little carving of a tree. "Just that they do, really."  
  
"They don't have many symbols of their faith," Nobuyuki explained. "No shrines or anything. Just the trees themselves, and a very few of those little carvings. That one was your grandfather's, and he got it from Misaki. Back before she married the Emperor she was a- not a priest, exactly. They call them 'followers.' They just sort of go around doing normal things and wear special symbols to tell people they're Followers. Then, when someone needs a ceremony or a blessing or whatever, they find a Follower. Those plaques are only given to very important Followers, usually ones who can't wear their symbols on the outside. Your grandfather gave it to your mother, and she gave it to me. When she was dying, she gave me a little branch from Funaho and a lock of her hair, saying that I should take it to the Inner Chamber on Jurai if I ever somehow managed to get there, and that the totem would get me in."  
  
"Why?" Tenchi asked, touching the tiny plaque with a finger. It was loose in the box, like there was space underneath.  
  
"Jurains don't have an afterlife," Nobuyuki explained. "They believe in something called 'conjoinment' instead. When they die, they say that their spirits join their trees and exist inside the Network. But if they're too far away from the Network when they die, their spirits get lost and need help to get back. The hair was supposed to be a link to her spirit and the branch was- like a power source, I guess. To keep the link strong."  
  
Tenchi lifted the little plaque and found a tiny branch, one green leaf still attached, with a lock of brown hair tied around it. He looked up at his father curiously.  
  
"I won't be here forever, Tenchi," Nobuyuki explained, smiling gently. "I'm only human and one day I'll die. When I do- I want you to take that to the Inner Chamber for me. If you will, I mean. There's a tree named Anomi that's... I'm not sure how to explain. She's like your great-great-grandmother. She was Azusa's mother's tree, and somehow she's linked to him more strongly than most Jurains are with their trees. Your mother tried to explain it, but I didn't understand. Take that to her and remind her who I am. She promised I could be with Achika when I was gone."  
  
Tenchi touched the lock of hair, his vision blurring and a knot building in his throat at the emotion in his father's voice. "I will Dad," he promised.  
  
Nobuyuki nodded, then sniffed and wiped his eyes. "So," he asked, "where are you off to?"  
  
"I'm going up to see Grandpa," Tenchi explained, fumbling with the box after realizing his gi had no pockets. "I haven't worked out in a while, so I was going to go up and see if he wanted to help me practice."  
  
"I'd come up there with you, but you know--"  
  
"Yeah," Tenchi agreed, "your hip." His father had been nursing a hip injury for most of a decade whenever the opportunity for a bit of exercise arose.   
  
"Say, why don't we go into town tonight? Me, you, and Dad can have a few drinks and toast your marriage."  
  
Tenchi shifted uncomfortably. "Dad, you know I don't like drinking."  
  
"You brought sake to dinner," Nobuyuki pointed out.  
  
"Yeah, but-"  
  
"No buts Tenchi. Tell Dad we're going out tonight. Nine o'clock."  
  
Tenchi sighed. "Alright, Dad."  
  
* * *  
  
Natsuri opened the front door, juggling his briefcase and the package he had found sticking out of the mailbox in his other hand.   
  
"I'm home," he announced in a half-exhausted shout. After setting down his briefcase, Natsuri did his best to simultaneously study the package and remove the jacket of his pen-striped, navy blue suit. His wife Mishio appeared, bustling through the door leading into the hallway and toweling soapy water from her hands.  
  
"Welcome home," she said pleasantly, helping him off with his jacket. "I was just out in the garden. What's that? Oh, from Mataeo?" Mishio snagged the package out of her husband's hands and began prying at the tape.  
  
"That is not the address he gave us," Natsuri pointed out, gesturing at the return address on the package.  
  
"Oh, don't worry about it dear. Do you think someone else is sending us mail with his name on it? He probably got another mailbox or something. Here, look, there's a letter." Mishio opened the folded paper with a flick of her wrist, still holding the rest of the package in her other hand. She scanned the text, her eyes widening as she went.  
  
"Oh- oh--"  
  
"What is it?" Natsuri asked. "Did he fail a class? I told him to study harder-"  
  
"N-no," Mishio said, shaking her head and looking up at him. "He- he and Ai... They're getting married! Isn't that wonderful, dear? Oh, our little boy is all grown up-"  
  
"Married?" Natsuri asked, startled. "But- I have not spoken with her father. Do the Fujiharas know? When are they planning to be married? He did not ask our permission..."  
  
"Oh, don't be such a grouch," Mishio scolded, smiling down at the letter. "I can't believe my little Mataeo is getting married... Oh, I can't Wait to tell the girls about this. They'll all be so jealous."  
  
"What else did he send?" Natsuri asked, taking the package from his wife's hand. He extracted a pair of brightly colored boxes and a photograph from the thick envelope and peered at them curiously.  
  
"Who are these people?" Natsuri asked, looking at the photograph. In the center stood Mataeo with his arm around Ai's shoulders, but flanking them were a pretty young woman with teal hair and an older man with a mustache, glasses, and a somewhat absurd grin on his face. In the background was something that looked like the base of a statue or monument of some sort, weathered and crawling with vines. Off on the left, barely in frame, stood two men in odd uniforms holding some sort of staves.  
  
"Well, look on the back, dear," Mishio suggested, lifting the corner of the picture. "Here, see."  
  
Natsuri flipped the photo over and read the back.  
  
Mom and Dad,  
Ai and I spent the week on holiday with  
Tenchi and his family. This is us with  
his father (on the right) Nobuyuki, his   
cousin Sasami (on the left), and some   
friends of hers. Remind me to tell you  
about the trip sometime, you won't believe  
a word of it. Hope you like the souvenirs.  
Love,  
Mataeo  
  
"Oh, look at these dear," Mishio was saying. She had opened the box with 'Mom' written across the front and extracted a pair of chopsticks. They were wood, though Natsuri did not recognize the grain. It was dark grey with streaks of red and black throughout. The wide end of each stick was ringed with three lines of gold and an odd little design repeated on each of the four flat faces. They tapered down toward the point, smooth but for a little half-twist three-fourths of the way down the length.  
  
"Very nice," Natsuri agreed, looking at his own pair. They were similar, though with silver bands and a different pattern. "I wonder where they went."  
  
Mishio was no longer paying attention to her husband. Chopsticks clutched in one hand and letter in the other she was headed for the phone, a broad smile on her face and a happy light in her eyes. "My little Mataeo, all grown up and getting married..."  



	5. flirting with danger

** Note **  
** This is chapter five of "Reflections of a Shattered Glass." If you haven't read chapters one through four, you're in the wrong place.  
** Happy reading,  
**--Krin (krin@hotmail.com)  
** http://www.geocities.com/mode6.geo/fanfic/  
** /Note **  
  
  


Reflections of a Shattered Glass  
-- five --  
  
flirting with danger  
  


Funaho finished braiding her hair back for sleep and rose, crossing her dressing chamber toward the door leading to the bedroom. She gestured at the control plate and the lights dimmed quickly, giving her eyes just enough time to adjust to the dimmer light of the bed chamber. Misaki was just emerging from her own dressing room, directly opposite Funaho's, and the empress cast a smile at her sister-wife.   
  
They approached one another, touching hands and sharing a brief kiss. The action was partially a genuine act of tender greeting and partially a cover for Funaho's barely voiced question of, "It proceeds apace?"  
  
Misaki adjusted Funaho's hair, tucking back a strand that had fallen loose, and answered, "It does. The second turning will be reached with the dawn."  
  
"Are you sure this is the correct course?" Funaho asked, touching Misaki's hand again before turning to walk silently toward the bed.  
  
Misaki's answer, given across the breadth of the bed, was in the form of a quick twitch of her fingers as she reached for the coverlet. To an onlooker it would have seemed meaningless, but Funaho knew it to be a signal of strong affirmation. Her sister-wife was confident of their course and dedicated to its fulfillment. Funaho had come to trust Misaki's council, even when it seemed as bizarre as now.  
  
"Come to bed," Azusa said tiredly, rolling onto his side in the center of the mattress. "It's late and I must address the Council tomorrow."  
  
"Yes dear," answered Funaho, sliding into bed beneath her side of the blanket. Misaki echoed the sentiment from her place across the way.  
  
Funaho slid close to her husband, resting her cheek on his out-stretched hand to feel the roughness of his fingers against her skin. In all the centuries she had spent on Jurai and for all the things she had seen and done, the touch of her husband never failed to make her feel like the love struck young girl who had gone away to the stars with the handsome, charming prince from another world. She ran her fingers along Azusa's side from his shoulder down to his hip and then along his leg, encountering Misaki's hand already resting on his thigh. She entwined her fingers with those of her wife and closed her eyes to greet sleep.  
  
"Did I do rightly be Aeka?" Azusa asked tiredly, sounding half asleep.  
  
Funaho opened her eyes again and asked, "I thought you wished to go to sleep?"  
  
"Mmm," Azusa sighed, "but it weighs heavily on my mind."  
  
"You did well dear," Misaki whispered. Funaho heard the soft sound of her wife kissing her husband's neck gently and mirrored the action, brushing his beard with her cheek as she kissed Azusa's collarbone.   
  
"Yes," she agreed. "You did the best you could. Though I do not know that you will be able to uphold your promises."  
  
Azusa sighed, rolling onto his back between them. "I must," he said in a quiet rumble.  
  
"The Lessons are a part of Jurai," Funaho pointed out, gently stroking his chest. "The people need them."  
  
"They were not always so," Azusa answered. "The most ancient histories speak of a time before them. And other worlds function without having them."  
  
"The people are set in their ways, Azusa. They will not easily be persuaded to change."  
  
"Change comes to everything," Misaki said quietly in answer to Funaho's protest. "Jurai can not remain as it is indefinitely. The legends tell us that doing so led to the Breaking. If we try to hold back new buds too long we will wither and die."  
  
"Or suffer another Reformation," Azusa sighed. "Perhaps in five hundred millennia they will call Hevar Uran the first Emperor and Himori will be as dusty a memory as the times before the Trees."  
  
"Don't talk of that man in bed," Funaho warned. "He is a distasteful little being and I do not wish to think of him before sleep."  
  
"It grows later," Azusa sighed. "Let me sleep, women."  
  
"As if he were not the one who started this," Funaho said conspiratorially toward Misaki. The other empress chuckled softly and pushed herself up on one elbow, leaning forward to kiss Azusa goodnight. Funaho waited her turn, kissed her husband, then kissed her wife only inches from Azusa's nose. The emperor made an appreciative noise and both women laughed softly.   
  
"Even after all this time," Funaho asked incredulously, "you never tire of watching, do you Azusa?"  
  
"Two beautiful women, both of them my wives; what is there to tire of?"  
  
"What do you say, sister?" Misaki asked playfully. "Shall we give our husband a show?"  
  
"Not tonight, not tonight," Azusa groused. "I must see the Council in the morning."  
  
"Of course dear," Misaki said gently, laying back on her pillow.  
  
"Perhaps tomorrow," Azusa added.  
  
Funaho sniffed derisively but took hold of his arm and drew herself close again. "Perhaps," she agreed. She draped an arm across Azusa's chest and touched Misaki, tapping in a gentle rhythm too light for their husband to notice.  
  
Misaki made no indication of noticing either, but a few moments later Funaho felt the lightest scratching at her finger.  
  
"Do not worry," Funaho translated from Misaki's touch-code, "Vianna will do as I instruct her and nothing more. The best guardian beast is the one that all believe to be wild, despite being held upon the shortest chain."  
  
Funaho sighed softly and closed her eyes again. Tomorrow promised to be a very long day.  
  
* * *  
  
"Da jinbe!" Sasami announced happily, scooping up the cards on the table. Aeka vented a frustrated groan and tossed her own hand down, glaring at her sister.  
  
"Monla phoheda," Aeka accused sullenly, shuffling her hand back into the pile while waiting for Sasami to prepare the next turn.  
  
"Solla phemana!" Sasami denied, looking over her handful of cards. "Iheda!"  
  
"Who cheated?" Ryouko asked as she entered, glancing between the two sisters.  
  
"Aeka says I did," Sasami explained, separating a portion of her cards and placing them face-down on the table. "I've won the past five turns."  
  
Aeka took the top six cards from the pile and put them beside Sasami's, flipping over the top card of each. She cursed softly in Jurain before saying aloud, "See? Mi hibe, and for the fourth time in a row!"  
  
Sasami grinned and handed the rest of her cards to Aeka, taking the two small piles and putting them together before shuffling through them curiously. "It's not my fault I'm better at it than you are."  
  
"And since when are you better at jinbe than I am?" Aeka asked. "When I left you were lucky if you won one turn in three."  
  
"I taught some girls at school to play," Sasami explained, putting down a card face up between them. "We played after school a lot and I got better. You should play Ayumi sometime, Aeka. She beat me almost every turn."  
  
"Probably just cheats better," Aeka snorted, putting her own card down atop Sasami's, the following it with another.  
  
Ryouko leaned down to peer over Sasami's shoulder and observed, "Hudumo on the paumo."  
  
"Duh," Sasami agreed, putting down the appropriate card.  
  
"You play now, too?" Aeka asked, looking up at Ryouko.  
  
"Sure," the cyan-haired woman agreed, straightening. "Sammy taught me."  
  
"No wonder she learned how to cheat," Aeka observed, putting down a card atop the growing stack, then wincing and following it with another one.  
  
"You should've put down the mep first," Ryouko pointed out. "Then you wouldn't have had to double."  
  
"Oh, and now I'm getting advice on playing jinbe from a space pirate," Aeka sighed, rolling her eyes dramatically. "Maybe Ryou-ohki will beat me next?"  
  
"She doesn't know how to play," Sasami said, shuffling through her hand. Finally she dropped a card and smiled. Aeka looked down at it, then at her hand, then back down at the card.  
  
"Isn't that-"  
  
"Da jinbe," Sasami agreed happily.  
  
"That's it," Aeka sighed, pushing away from the table. "I give up."  
  
"Good," Ryouko said pleasantly. "Then maybe you want to go into town with the space pirate and get some lunch?"  
  
Aeka stood and nodded. "That sounds nice. It is easy to forget how different real Japanese food is from that made on Jurai. I missed soy sauce."  
  
"Mmm," Ryouko agreed, "and real pickles."  
  
"Just let me go upstairs and get changed," Aeka said, heading for the stairs. "Is Tenchi coming?"  
  
"No," Ryouko called after the princess, "he's up on the mountain with Grandpa."  
  
"Can I come?" Sasami asked, cleaning up the card game.  
  
Ryouko glanced after Aeka and asked, "Do you mind staying home this time? I haven't done anything with Aeka in a while and I thought we'd go out, just us two. You know? I'll take you out tomorrow, if you want."  
  
"It's okay," Sasami said, smiling. "I'm glad you and Aeka get along now."  
  
Ryouko shrugged. "What do we have to fight over?"  
  
"I dunno," Sasami said thoughtfully, shuffling the cards together, "but you still do it a lot, whatever you're fighting over."  
  
Ryouko laughed, "Yeah, I guess, but we don't Mean it anymore."  
  
Sasami chuckled and nodded. "Could you stop at the store and get a couple of things on the way home? I want to make something special for dinner tonight since we're all together again."  
  
"Mihoshi and Kiyone aren't here," Ryouko pointed out.  
  
"Yeah," Sasami sighed. "I hope Mihoshi's okay. But Most of us are here."  
  
Ryouko nodded. "Make me a list and we'll stop on the way home."  
  
Sasami put away her cards in their little faux-wood case while Ryouko watched silently, considering. Finally she asked in a hesitant voice, "Sammy? I- I'm not sure how to ask this-"  
  
"Ask what?"  
  
"I was wondering if- that is, can I... Can I talk to Tsunami for a minute?"  
  
Tsunami nodded gently and smiled. "You already are, Ryouko."  
  
Ryouko blinked and said nervously, "Er- hi."  
  
"Hello, Ryouko," the goddess answered, smiling softly. "Sit, let's talk."  
  
Ryouko sat down where Aeka had been, looking down at her fingernails and trying to decide how to say it. Finally she sighed and asked, "Do you know about- about before? In the lab?"  
  
"Do you wish me to?" Tsunami asked.  
  
"Y-yes," Ryouko agreed hesitantly. "It'd make it easier than explaining."  
  
"Sasami will know," Tsunami cautioned. "She is here with me in her body. It is not like the Inner Chamber where mind and body may be separate."  
  
"Oh," Ryouko sighed. "I- Can you keep a secret for me, Sammy?"  
  
"Sure," Sasami agreed.  
  
"It's a big secret," Ryouko warned. "And if you see it, you shouldn't even admit to yourself that you know. Just pretend like you never heard it? Even to me?"  
  
Sasami frowned and asked cautiously, "Is it a bad secret?"  
  
"Oh, no," Ryouko assured the younger woman. "It's just really private and I don't want anybody to know yet. But I need to talk to someone about it and I'm hoping Tsunami can give me some advice."  
  
"I am afraid I cannot tell you if you will have a child, Ryouko."  
  
Ryouko blinked. The goddess was back, her presence somehow superimposed on Sasami's. "I guess Sammy agreed to keep it secret?"  
  
Tsunami nodded. "She will allow me to put her memory of this conversation away for a time. When you have decided to allow others to know of your suspicions I will release the memory."  
  
"You can do that?" Ryouko asked curiously. "But why didn't you just do that when I asked if I could talk to alone on Jurai?"  
  
"Sasami must give me her permission," Tsunami explained. "We are one body and, one day, will be one mind. It would not do for us to fight one another."  
  
Ryouko nodded slowly. "Why can't you tell me about the baby? I thought you could see everything."  
  
"I can see nearly all things," Tsunami agreed. "When I choose to. But there are an infinity of possible futures, Ryouko. It is not a simple progression from past to now to then; there are different paths and different means for walking them. What you do now will alter which of the many futures comes to pass, and what you do in the future may even alter what has gone before. I can tell you which future I see in occurrence, but to do so will skew fate. By merely speaking the prophecy, the future will be altered and what I foretell may well not be what comes to pass."  
  
"So if you tell me I'm going to have a baby, I won't?" Ryouko asked, wondering how that could possibly work. Simply knowing she was pregnant would not suddenly change the fact, would it? *But maybe if I know now Tenchi and I will decide to abort, and if I don't know for a month we won't.*  
  
"That is a possibility," Tsunami acknowledged. "Or, if a child is what I see for the future, my telling may alter other things."  
  
Ryouko sighed. "I was hoping you could help me. I talked to Tenchi and he wasn't upset like I thought he would be, but he didn't tell me what to do. I guess I should have expected that; he's always supportive. I guess I was just kind of hoping he would sit me down and say, 'Ryouko, you're not having a baby' or 'Ryouko, I won't let you have an abortion.'"  
  
"You wished the decision to be taken out of your hands," Tsunami observed. "But you know that Tenchi would never do that. The child would be as much yours as his and he would not presume to tell you what your decision should be. If he did, I think you would grow to resent it."  
  
"You're right," Ryouko admitted quietly, nodding while the goddess spoke. "But it's such a big decision. If I have a baby everything will change. I'll have to drop out of school and stay home to take care of her and Tenchi and I won't be able to go planet hopping until she's old enough to come with. But if I don't have her, could I really be happy knowing I could have had a little girl? Everything Tenchi and I do, I'd wonder what it would have been like if she was there."  
  
"It is a difficult decision," Tsunami agreed. "And one that you and Tenchi must make together. Being a father will change his life as well, Ryouko. He does not wish to state his opinions too strongly for fear that you will see him as selfish, but he has all the same concerns you do."  
  
"So what should I do?" Ryouko asked desperately. "It's all so...big."  
  
"I cannot tell you what to do," Tsunami said sadly. "I am sorry, Ryouko, but in this the only advice I may offer is that which anyone could give you: wait until you know if you are pregnant to come to your decision."  
  
"I guess I should have expected that," Ryouko sighed. "But I hoped- I hoped you might just tell me what was going to happen so I wouldn't have to worry about it."  
  
Tsunami smiled gently and touched Ryouko's hand comfortingly. "Life is never so simple as that, Ryouko. Even I have things I wish could be simply answered for me."  
  
"Alright Ryouko," Aeka said, coming down the stairs and back into the living room, "I'm ready. Are you coming Sasami?"  
  
"No," Sasami answered, rising with her card box in hand, "I think I'm going to go up and watch Tenchi practice."  
  
"Have fun then," Aeka said with a smile. She leaned close to her sister's ear and whispered something Ryouko could not hear but which made the younger princess smile.   
  
"Bye Aeka, bye Ryouko," Sasami called as they headed for the door. Ryouko waved over her should and dug into her purse for the car keys.  
  
  
Aeka climbed into the car on the passenger side, looking slightly startled as Ryouko slid behind the wheel. "You can drive?"  
  
"It's not That difficult," Ryouko said, pulling on her seat belt and waiting for Aeka to finish getting in before starting the car. "Tenchi taught me while we were in Tokyo. Mom even made me a license."  
  
"Perhaps you could teach me sometime?" Aeka asked, watching as Ryouko pulled out of the driveway and headed up the tree-lined road leading away from the house.  
  
"Sure," Ryouko agreed. "So where do we want to eat?"  
  
"I don't know... It has been some time since I went out to eat further than the palace kitchens."  
  
"We'll have to go to Tokyo one night, there's a place there you'd love. Everybody wears traditional Japanese clothes and everything's served the way it would have been a few hundred years ago."  
  
"That does sound interesting," Aeka admitted. "Perhaps Hirotsu's for lunch today?"  
  
"Sounds good to me," Ryouko agreed. "And speaking of traditional clothes, that's a nice outfit. I didn't think you even owned anything like that."  
  
Aeka looked down at the sheer, low-cut blouse and form-fitting jeans she wore and blushed slightly. "I don't, these are Sasami's."  
  
"Really?" Ryouko asked, glancing over at the princess in surprise. "Sammy made it sound like you hated the way she dresses."  
  
"Sasami is a woman now," Aeka said with a tone that Ryouko thought sounded more like she was talking to herself than to her companion, "and what she wears is her own business. If I do not always approve... I thought I might show her that I do not entirely detest her style of dress by borrowing a few of her things."  
  
"You look good," Ryouko said supportively. "And I'm sure Sammy appreciates the effort."  
  
"Why do you call her that?" Aeka asked curiously.  
  
"Call her what? Sammy?"  
  
"Yes," Aeka agreed.  
  
Ryouko shrugged. "Her friends at school call her that and I guess I just picked it up. I think she likes having a nickname."  
  
Aeka sighed. "There is so much about Sasami I do not know. It feels as though I have been gone for a decade rather than only a few months."  
  
Ryouko nodded. "She grew up fast. I guess she couldn't help it. I don't know how it works on Jurai, but when someone looks a certain age here people expect them to act that way. Sasami couldn't stay a little girl when she looked like a woman. She's always been smart enough to see what people expected out of her, I guess she just did what she thought would let her fit in."  
  
"I miss my little sister Sasami, though," Aeka sighed. "I thought I would have most of a year before her Change when it came, I suppose I've still not gotten my thoughts around that fact. She's so different now."  
  
"Not That different. She's still the same Sasami under the new clothes and the way she talks now. Sometimes she's still just a confused little girl."  
  
"Did you- did you know this Eto boy that she liked?"  
  
"Yeah," Ryouko agreed with a touch of anger in her voice, "I met Eto."  
  
"You did not like him?"  
  
"I never trusted him" Ryouko agreed. "Tenchi said we should let Sasami handle her own social life, though, so I didn't say much. I'd like to wring that little prick's neck."  
  
"You would?" Aeka asked, seeming startled.  
  
"Sure. After what he pulled I'd like to smack him from here to Jurai."  
  
"What he-"  
  
"You don't know?" Ryouko asked, glancing away from the road to look at Aeka.  
  
"No, Sasami only said that they broke up. She did not mention why."  
  
"Oh."  
  
"Well? Aren't you going to tell me?"  
  
"I don't know," Ryouko said nervously. "If Sammy didn't tell you, I don't know if I-"  
  
"Come now, Ryouko. I'm her sister. Surely something she told you, you can tell me?"  
  
"I don't know, Aeka. I promised her I wouldn't say anything."  
  
"She is obviously still upset about losing this boy," Aeka said stiffly. "How am I to comfort her if I do not know what happened?"  
  
"I'm sorry," Ryouko sighed. "I just can't, Aeka. I promised Sasami and I can't just break that. Why don't you talk to her about it?"  
  
"Mmm," Aeka murmured neutrally. They drove on in silence for a time and Ryouko turned on the stereo to fill the uncomfortable void. Eventually, when they were over half of the way to Kurashiki, Aeka spoke again.  
  
"What happened, Ryouko?"  
  
"What?" Ryouko asked, startled by the princess' sudden question. "What happened to what?"  
  
"To you," Aeka explained. "Everything has changed so much... A couple of years ago we probably would have come to blows over your refusal to tell me what happened between Sasami and this Eto boy, but now I find myself admiring your steadfastness in honoring a promise. Sasami-"  
  
Aeka paused and vented a long breath through her nose, her eyes closed, before speaking again, "Sasami said that she wishes I could be more like you. She thinks very highly of you, Ryouko. She told me how supportive of Tenchi you have been, and how happy you made him. She says that you not only go to school now, you even worry over your grades and stay up at night studying. You are not the woman who destroyed my Ryu-oh, Ryouko. What happened?"  
  
Ryouko stared at the road, thinking about Aeka's question. What Had happened? Was it simply Tenchi's influence? But he had changed too, over the past year. And the changes had not stopped a month after his birthday, either. He had been changing in little ways over the whole course of the time, and the sum of the differences was much more than any of them alone. He was not a boy anymore, he was a man she wanted to be the father of her children. He was not the boy she had fallen in love with, he was her husband and protector, confidant and provider. Ryouko realized what had changed and smiled softly.  
  
"I grew up, Aeka."  
  
"What?" The princess seemed startled at the answer, as though not truly expecting to receive one at all and doubly surprised by the content when it came.  
  
"I grew up," Ryouko repeated. "I was over five thousand when Tenchi let me out of the cave, but I was still a little girl. I had maybe a dozen years worth of real time in all the centuries I'd been alive. Moments stolen here and there when...Kagato was busy with something else. All I wanted was Tenchi and I fought with you over him like a little kid who wanted a piece of candy. Last year... I thought Tenchi just unlocked all the emotional parts of my brain, but that's not what he did. I mean, I guess that's Technically what he did, at first anyway, but it's not really what happened.   
  
"He woke me up, and since then I've realized that there are a lot of important things in life. Making myself happy isn't my only goal anymore. I want Tenchi to be happy, and I want Sasami to be happy. I don't want people to be afraid of me because I can beat the crap out of them, I want them to respect me for being a real person. I want to do well in class because I like learning things; and because Tenchi was always so proud when I showed him that I was getting good grades. Mom told me I'd grown up a lot since I got out of the cave, but I didn't listen to her." Ryouko chuckled quietly and shook her head. "Guess she was right again."  
  
"You grew up," Aeka said a few moments later, her voice deeply sad. "Tenchi grew up. Sasami and even little Ryou-ohki grew up. Where does that leave me, Ryouko? I lost another love and that- that thing took away my body. Everyone's changing around me and I feel like I'm just stuck in place while you leave me behind..."  
  
"No one's leaving you behind," Ryouko assured Aeka with all the gentleness she could muster. "I'm sorry you've had to go through so much, Aeka, and I don't understand why you did. Tsunami says there's no set future, so I guess there's no such thing as fate, but it seems like you've gotten a really raw deal. But we're friends, right?"  
  
Aeka nodded, sniffing quietly and wiping at her eyes.  
  
"And we'll stay friends," Ryouko said confidently. "Whatever else happens, I'll be there for you Aeka. So will Tenchi and Sammy and everybody else. We're a family, even if it's kind of a weird one. Though I guess we're not much weirder than some Jurain ones, now that I think about it."  
  
Aeka laughed, following it with a cough and another sniff. "I'm happy to have a family, Ryouko. Truly I am. But I just don't know if that's enough. I've been in love twice... Maybe almost three times. And every time he's been pulled away. I want someone to share my life with, Ryouko. I don't want to be alone anymore."  
  
"You'll find someone," Ryouko promised, reaching over to squeeze Aeka's hand confidently.  
  
Aeka sighed and squeezed Ryouko's hand back, staring out the window. Ryouko glanced over and saw tears reflected on the princess' face. The rest of the trip they spent in near silence, though one of a more companionable nature than the first. It was broken only when Aeka sang, so softly that Ryouko doubted she was meant to hear, along with a song about lost love that played over the radio.   
  
* * *  
  
"Grandpa?" Tenchi asked, pushing the rice-paper door aside and glancing around the shrine office. There were mounds of paper stacked on and around the desk, but no sign of the old man.  
  
*I hope I never have to run this place,* Tenchi thought, closing the door to the office. *The chores are bad enough, but I couldn't stand the paper work.*  
  
The sound of laugher drew Tenchi's attention toward the edge of the paved clearing. Katsuhito and Washuu were just emerging from the woods, walking side by side. They did not hold hands, but their body language made it clear even to Tenchi that they were together.  
  
*It's going to take a long time to get used to Grandpa looking so young,* Tenchi reflected, watching them approach. They had seen him, but made no effort to hurry. *Now Mom looks like the older woman.*  
  
Tenchi blinked, startled at his own thought. *Mom? Well, I guess she is. Step-mother at least, and Ryouko must be rubbing off on me. I wonder what she'd do if I called her that?*  
  
"Tenchi!" Katsuhito called in greeting as they approached.  
  
"Hi Grandpa, Washuu."  
  
"Hello Tenchi," Washuu replied pleasantly. "Did Ryouko find you?"  
  
Tenchi nodded. "She took Aeka into town for lunch."  
  
"What can I do for you, Tenchi?" Katsuhito asked. "Miss Washuu and I were about to have tea."  
  
"Oh. I just thought you might help me work out for a while. I've been kind of letting it slide lately..."  
  
Katsuhito glanced at Washuu who smiled indulgently and patted his arm. "Go ahead, Kat. Play with your grandson, I'll go in and start lunch."  
  
"Thanks Washuu."  
  
She smiled and patted Tenchi's shoulder as she passed on her way into the building.   
  
"So what will it be Tenchi?" Katsuhito asked, following Washuu. "Swords? Staves? Barehanded, maybe?" He balled his hands into fists and swung a teasing punch at Tenchi's arm.  
  
"You're in a good mood," Tenchi observed.  
  
"Mmm," Katsuhito agreed, glancing at the door leading further into the building through which Washuu had vanished. He walked to the closet and took out a pair of bokken, holding one out to Tenchi. The younger man took it, immediately snapping the blade toward Katsuhito's face. The attack was effortlessly blocked and the priest smiled. "Good, Tenchi. But outside, shall we?"  
  
  
Tenchi adjusted his hair, tightening the thong that held it in place. Katsuhito was stretching, so Tenchi did the same. He had stretched before jogging up from the house, of course, but the old man had long held that there was no such thing as stretching too much.  
  
Katsuhito picked up his bokken, assuming the Moonlit Branches stance. Tenchi shifted his weight and adopted Two Moons Rising, waiting for his grandfather's attack.   
  
Instead of attacking, the priest only stared levelly at Tenchi, his wooden sword still as stone and his gaze unblinking. Tenchi did his best to hold his position as carefully, only his hair moving as the wind picked at the trailing ends and tossing them around his back.  
  
"Come then," Katsuhito offered neutrally after they had stared at one another for what Tenchi thought must have been a good five minutes.  
  
"No," Tenchi answered, not moving any more than Katsuhito had. "You come."  
  
"Good," Katsuhito said appreciatively, but made no move to attack. Tenchi began a series of minute muscle exercises to keep himself loose despite holding his body so long in one position. The minutes stretched on and Tenchi wondered if his grandfather would ever attack. A bead of sweat slowly made its way down Tenchi's back, but he refused to scratch at the tickling trail it left.  
  
Suddenly, just when Tenchi thought he would have to relent and attack, Katsuhito shouted and charged. His feet shuffled surely, one leg never crossing the other, and he circled slightly to the side. His bokken moved through Greet the Dawn, an attack that Tenchi easily deflected while sidestepping his grandfather's charge.  
  
"So how is Washuu?" Tenchi asked, moving to the offensive with The Maiden Dances. Katsuhito blocked and responded with Across the River.  
  
"She is well," the elder man answered. "And Ryouko?"  
  
Tenchi briefly considered telling his grandfather about his conversation with Ryouko, but discarded the idea. If Katsuhito somehow knew about it, he would make his knowledge known. If not, Tenchi did not want to share the information just yet. When they knew for sure, he would probably ask his grandfather for advice; but until then it was between him and his wife. "She is well," Tenchi echoed. "Have you ever been to Yall?"  
  
"Once," Katsuhito agreed, testing Tenchi's defense with Orange Dawn. He nodded in appreciation when Tenchi made the proper response to the attack. "The falls are quite beautiful."  
  
"They are. Ryouko and I are going to return on our honeymoon." He stepped into Tree of Life, bringing his bokken up in an ascending arc with Gathering Rushes. Katsuhito side-stepped and asked, "Have you decided a date for the wedding?"  
  
"August twenty-third," Tenchi said, backing off a step. Katsuhito's defense seemed weaker today than usual, but Tenchi assumed it was some sort of trick.  
  
"Her birthday?" Katsuhito asked, backing away a step of his own.  
  
"She gave me her heart on my birthday, I can give her what she's waited for so long on hers."  
  
Katsuhito murmured appreciatively. "There are more fortuitous dates, but a good sentiment. Will you have a Shinto wedding?"  
  
Tenchi leapt forward with an attack and Katsuhito slid easily backward into The Emperor Kneels to deflect.  
  
"We haven't decided," Tenchi admitted. "We're thinking of having one now, and going to Jurai to have a Jurain wedding and renew our vows in a year." He dodged a feint by his grandfather and had to hustle the bokken around to avoid a crack on the arm.  
  
"Will you perform the ceremony?" Tenchi asked, defending against a series of further attacks. "If we have a traditional wedding, that is."  
  
"I would be honored," Katsuhito agreed. "Where have you been studying, Tenchi? I did not recognize that defense."  
  
"I picked it up from Ryouko. Try this." He snapped the tip of the wooden blade downward, lunging forward with his fist and bringing the sword forward and up at the last moment.  
  
Katsuhito deflected with Touch of the River and nodded. "Improvisation. That's good, Tenchi. And this?" He darted his sword through a complicated maneuver that Tenchi did not recognize. The younger man made to block, but the sword somehow moved around his own, ending in a place wholly other than where Tenchi expected the blow to fall. He had to duck wildly to keep from being struck on the side of the head, his sword held uselessly near his hip.  
  
"What was that?" Tenchi asked, stepping backward to regain his balance while assuming a more defensive posture.  
  
"It is called 'Kinnetsu heda terr.' That's Tedrin. It means something like 'Rotating the glass cylinder.'"  
  
"Tedrin?" Tenchi asked, relieved that his grandfather's next attack was something recognizable.  
  
"Yes, a race of simian-like beings from near the Core. Most of their martial arts maneuvers are impossible for humans. That one was meant to be performed with a six-section flail wielded in the upper three arms."  
  
"Upper three?"  
  
"Yes," Katsuhito agreed. "They have seven."  
  
"I don't think I would want to fight one," Tenchi observed, moving cautiously back toward the offensive.  
  
"It is not as difficult as it would seem. They are horribly unimaginative and have trouble fighting anyone who uses a style they do not recognize. The key to victory is not physical prowess, Tenchi-"  
  
"It is strategy," Tenchi finished with a grin. "I didn't forget Everything while I was away, Grandpa."  
  
"So I see," Katsuhito admitted, dodging an attack he could not deflect quickly enough.   
  
"What's wrong?" Tenchi asked. "You're better than this, Grandpa. I hardly ever went this long, and now I've barely broken a sweat."  
  
"Nothing is wrong, Tenchi," Katsuhito said calmly. "I am as good as I ever was, you are simply getting better."  
  
*He's trying to trick me,* Tenchi thought, circling his grandfather warily. *He'll try to lull me into security and then take me when I lower my guard.*  
  
Tenchi saw no weakness in his grandfather's defense, so moved forward with a cautious attack: Striking through Fog. Katsuhito blocked, and grinned. "You'll have to try harder than that, Tenchi."  
  
Tenchi nodded and tried again. And again. And again. They traded blows back and forth until Tenchi was blinking sweat from his eyes, loose strands of hair sticking to his face. He was separated from his grandfather by half the width of the yard and held his sword defensively, shifting in a wide, slow circle while trying to decide what to do next. Katsuhito might not seem up to his old level of skill, but he was still very, very good. None of Tenchi's attacks had come close to scoring but he had more than a few near misses in dodging those of the old man.  
  
"I think I smell lunch," Katsuhito observed from across the way. He raised his wooden sword and called, "Let's finish this, shall we?"  
  
Tenchi nodded and readied himself. Katsuhito advanced, raising his sword above his head, and Tenchi moved forward to meet him. Wood cracked against wood, then again and again in a staccato burst of attack and defense. They danced back and forth, blades weaving complex patterns as Tenchi vied for an edge. Whatever the reason for Katsuhito's handicap, he was determined to press it. If the old man would not fight at his best, today would simply be the day he finally lost.  
  
Tenchi twisted his sword through the delicate arc of Edge of the Shadows, catching Katsuhito's blade and whipping it aside. The older man's grip failed and his bokken clattered across the paving stones. Rather than concede, though, Katsuhito leapt backward through a hand spring and landed nimbly on his toes.   
  
"Effective," he complimented, shifting from one stance to another. "Now what will you do, Tenchi?"  
  
"Win," the younger man answered confidently, advancing with sword raised. Katsuhito waited motionlessly while Tenchi approached, then snapped a kick at his grandson's hands just as the bokken approached his shoulder. Tenchi yelped and his hand went limp, sword slipping away and skidding across the ground.  
  
"You could have done that at any time," he said, stepping back hurriedly.  
  
"Perhaps," Katsuhito agreed. "Or perhaps you let yourself become too confident and I took advantage of the weakness."  
  
"I'm not as bad at this as I used to be," Tenchi warned, taking an aikido stance.  
  
"So I see."  
  
Tenchi shuffled forward and feinted with one hand while striking with the other, reaching for Katsuhito's collar. The priest pushed the grasping hand aside, snatching Tenchi's wrist and pulling the younger man in closer. Tenchi shifted, drawing Katsuhito across his shoulder, but the priest spun aside gracefully and used Tenchi's movement to twist his arm around to a painful angle.  
  
Tenchi lashed out with a punch to his grandfather's hand, striking the pressure point between thumb and first finger with a knuckle. Katsuhito's grip loosened and Tenchi pulled away, abandoning aikido for a moment to throw a kick at his grandfather's head.  
  
Katsuhito lifted his own leg, hooking his foot around Tenchi's knee and pulling the attacking leg back down. He stepped forward and struck at Tenchi's neck with a stiffened hand, only to be blocked by a casual flick of his grandson's wrist. Tenchi grabbed Katsuhito's shirt with both hands, trying to sweep the old man's legs while twisting him off balance. Katsuhito responded by shoving his arms between Tenchi's and forcing them apart, his balance solid enough that the sweeping leg did nothing. He followed with a pair of snapped punches toward Tenchi's abdomen that forced his grandson to dance backward, out of reach.  
  
*Well that's not going to work,* Tenchi thought, considering. Aikido was all about throws, but his grandfather was considerably harder to get ahold of than Mataeo. He also seemed to like fighting in close where he could easily put Tenchi off balance, so Tenchi resolved to keep his distance. He was just a hair taller than his grandfather and, judging from Katsuhito's fighting style, probably slightly more comfortable using his feet to attack.  
  
Katsuhito tried to close, but Tenchi swept low and snagged the priest's legs out from beneath him. The elder man went down, but immediately sprang back to his feet and launched himself at his grandson. Tenchi caught the weight of Katsuhito's leap and rolled backward, hitting the ground hard and using the impact to throw his grandfather away with a grunt. Katsuhito rolled across his shoulder and spun back to face his opponent.  
  
Tenchi sprang upward and danced around into something closer to a traditional stance, waiting for his grandfather's approach. But instead of attacking immediately, Katsuhito took a step backward and reached into his shirt.  
  
*Now what?* Tenchi wondered. He took a step toward Katsuhito just as the elder man pulled the master key from his waistband.  
  
"Wha-"  
  
Katsuhito gave Tenchi no time to complete the question, igniting the blade of the sword and leaping forward. He swung it in a downward arc toward Tenchi's face, forcing his grandson backward. Tenchi tripped and fell heavily, catching himself with one arm and scrambling backward.  
  
"Grandpa, what are you doing?"  
  
"Remember what I told you about practice fights?" Katsuhito asked, swinging the sword around in a glowing arc.  
  
Tenchi thought furiously, trying to find his feet. "There is no such thing as a practice fight," Tenchi quoted. "Never assume a handicap or you will be handicapped in every real battle."  
  
"Good," Katsuhito said approvingly. "Now defend yourself." He stepped forward again, swinging Tenchi-ken through The Maiden Dances, angled low toward Tenchi's prone form.  
  
Tenchi raised his hand, the familiar pain shooting through his veins as the Lighthawk sword burst into being just in time to catch the blade of the master key. The two met with a crack and Tenchi pushed himself upward, rising to his feet while thrusting his grandfather away.  
  
"Grandpa," he protested, blocking another attack, "this is dangerous!"  
  
"Combat is dangerous, Tenchi. Now are we playing, or are we fighting?" He lashed out with a flurry of attacks that Tenchi barely deflected, their swords humming through glittering arcs and shedding painfully bright flares with every contact.  
  
*Fine,* Tenchi thought, *he wants to play rough...* He took the offensive, forcing his grandfather further backward.  
  
"Good," Katsuhito said approvingly. "Now perhaps the fight can really begin."  
  
* * *  
  
"Mmm," Aeka sighed, closing her eyes and chewing appreciatively. "This is wonderful."  
  
"Yeah," Ryouko agreed, poking at her own lunch, "Hirotsu's always had the best beef sukiyaki."  
  
They ate in companionable silence for a time. When Aeka had finished her food and Ryouko had eaten all she could--her appetite did not seem to be full strength that day--she asked, "So... How are you, Aeka? I mean, I know what you said in the car and all; but how are you feeling?"  
  
Aeka shrugged and popped one of the few remaining pickles left on her plate into her mouth. "Well enough, I suppose. Washuu did a fine job of healing me after--"  
  
Ryouko nodded. "How do you feel about all that? It wasn't really that long ago, but with that thing destroyed I guess I've just sort of pushed it all out of my mind as being over."  
  
Aeka sighed. "I don't know, Ryouko. When I close my eyes at night... Half the time he's there, looming over me with a knife and I- I'd rather not talk about it, Ryouko, if you don't mind. I am dealing with it, but I do not feel comfortable discussing it."  
  
"That's alright," Ryouko said gently. "How's all that stuff you wanted to get done on Jurai going?"  
  
"Not well," Aeka said gloomily. "The Council has no interest in listening to my views, and father refuses to support them. Though perhaps that may have changed... He seemed so different the last few days we were on Jurai. I can almost forgive him for- for-" Aeka shook her head, leaving the thought unfinished.  
  
Ryouko tapped her chopsticks together and tried to think of something else to talk about. Most of Aeka's life lately had revolved around Jurai, what else Could they talk about? Ryouko looked around for inspiration and saw their waiter approaching.  
  
"Anything else for you today?"  
  
Aeka looked up, startled at the sudden presence beside their table. Ryouko started to say no, but Aeka cut in with, "I would like a cocktail. How about you Ryouko? It's still early, we'll have something to drink before we go home, alright?"  
  
"I- I don't know, Aeka," Ryouko said nervously, thinking of her possible pregnancy. She doubted alcohol would ever get anywhere near her womb, it generally didn't even make it to her stomach unless she wanted it to, but Ryouko did not want to take any unnecessary chances. She tried to think of a good excuse and hit upon, "I have to drive home."  
  
Aeka sighed and rolled her eyes. "Well, do you mind if we stay so I can have something? I think I need one right now."  
  
Ryouko smiled and nodded. "Sure Aeka. Bring me a tea?"  
  
The waited bowed briefly and turned away, heading for the kitchen. Ryouko looked back at Aeka to find the princess staring at her curiously.  
  
"So why don't you want a drink?"  
  
"I- I have to drive home, like I said," Ryouko explained nervously.  
  
"Come on, Ryouko. When has responsibility ever gotten in your way?"  
  
"I'm a married woman now," Ryouko replied primly. "Tenchi would Not be happy if I got arrested for driving drunk."  
  
"I bet," Aeka murmured, still staring at her. "I don't think that's it. You're hiding something, I can tell."  
  
"I'm not hiding any-" Ryouko paused, spying a familiar face near the door. "Oh god," she moaned, sinking down in the seat, "it's my composition professor."  
  
"What?" Aeka asked, turning to look. "Where?"  
  
"Don't look!" Ryouko growled. "He'll see- oh no, he's coming over here."  
  
"Him?" Aeka asked, watching the man with the long brown hair and neatly trimmed goatee approach.  
  
"Yes Him," Ryouko sighed miserably. "He hit on me from my first day in the class, now he's going to-" She painted a pleasant smile on her face as the man approached and greeted, "Hello professor Laurance."  
  
"Miss Hakubi, what a pleasant surprise," the man said cheerfully, his Japanese edged with a slight British accent.  
  
"It's Masaki now, actually," Ryouko said with a broad smile.   
  
"Really? Congratulations. Who's the lucky man?"  
  
"Tenchi," Ryouko explained curtly. "You remember Tenchi? I introduced you to him a few times."  
  
"Tenchi," the professor said thoughtfully. "Tenchi... No, I'm afraid I don't remember a Tenchi. Well, congratulations in any case. Are you going to introduce me to your friend?"  
  
"No," Ryouko muttered low enough that she was sure only Aeka would hear. "Professor Laurance, Jurai Aeka. Aeka, Professor Laurance."  
  
"Hello sir," Aeka said formally, tipping her head slightly. The professor bowed, though in something closer to the western manner than the eastern, and replied with, "A pleasure, Miss Jurai. Please, call me Steven. We are away from the classroom after all. Would you ladies mind if I join you? I'm afraid this is my first time to Kurashiki and I only ducked in out of the rain, but I could not ask for more fortuitous companions to take lunch with."  
  
"We already ate," Ryouko protested as he sat down beside Aeka, not waiting for permission.  
  
"We were just going to have something to drink before we left," Aeka further explained, sliding away from him.  
  
"Well, it won't be the first time I've drunk my lunch," Steven said with a grin, signaling to a passing waiter. "Double scotch and a glass of white wine, if you will."  
  
"Sir," the waiter agreed before moving off.  
  
Steven turned his grin back on the two women, asking, "So, what brings you ladies to this fine city?"  
  
Ryouko started to lie, but Aeka answered first with, "We just came into town for lunch. We're staying with family not too far away."  
  
"Family? You're related?"  
  
"Yes," Ryouko said for the sake of expediency, "Aeka is my-"  
  
"Cousin," the princess finished. "I assume you teach at the University of Tokyo?"  
  
"Composition," Steven agreed. "Fine school, that. I just came over from Europe last year. My brother teaches at Tokyo and the headmaster and I had a bit of a falling out at my last place of employment."  
  
"Oh?" Aeka asked curiously while Ryouko tried to think of a way to get the guy to leave. He was so blatantly flirting with the princess it was disgusting. "Where was that?"  
  
"I'd really rather not say," Steven said smoothly as their waiter arrived bearing drinks. Ryouko took her tea and sipped carefully, casting venomous glances at her professor over the rim of the cup in the hopes that he would get the idea and go away.  
  
"What brings you to Kurashiki, if I may ask?"  
  
*Damn it Aeka,* Ryouko thought angrily, *don't encourage him.*  
  
"Pleasure entirely. There was not enough demand for my services over the summer semester for me to be gainfully employed, so I thought to see the sights of my new homeland." His eyes roved over Aeka and he smiled before saying, "And I must say, I'm beginning to change my mind about Paris being the most beautiful city in the world."  
  
*Ugh,* Ryouko thought, rolling her eyes and taking another sip of tea. *If Aeka falls for that one I'll-*  
  
"You've been to Paris?" Aeka asked with what seemed to be genuine interest. "Oh, I've heard it's wonderful."  
  
*God, Aeka. Could you be any More of a...what's the word I'm looking for here?* Aeka batted her eyes and listened attentively to Steven's description of the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triumph. *Ah, right. Flirt.*  
  
  
Ryouko finished her tea and sat for what felt like hours listening to the pair chatting across the table from her. He was regaling her with French now, a language of which Ryouko had picked up no more than a half dozen words; most of which she looked up after the professor tried to use them on her. She was not sure, but Ryouko thought he had just called Aeka a cabbage.  
  
"We've got to get going," Ryouko said, interrupting the language lesson. "Sasami's going to get worried."  
  
Aeka glanced at her watch and gasped. "Oh my, you're right Ryouko. I didn't realize we had been here so long. Please excuse us, Steven, but we must be going."  
  
He rose with them and bowed formally. "It has been a pleasure. Please, take my card. You have an amazing talent for language, Miss Jurai. I know a woman with poetry in her soul, and you most certainly have it."  
  
Ryouko suppressed the urge to roll her eyes and grabbed Aeka's hand. "Come on, Aeka. Let's get going."  
  
Aeka took the card and waved as Ryouko pulled her toward the door. "It was nice meeting you."  
  
  
"God, Aeka," Ryouko muttered as they got into the car.  
  
"What?" The princess asked, sounding perplexed. "Is something the matter Ryouko?"  
  
"Could you possibly be any more...flagrant? God, I thought you were going to climb into his lap."  
  
"What? Why, I have no idea what you're talking about Ryouko. Steven and I were merely chatting over our drinks-"  
  
"'Steven and I were merely chatting over our drinks,'" Ryouko mocked. "You know he called you a cabbage?"  
  
"He did?" Aeka asked, glancing back toward the restaurant.  
  
"Yes," Ryouko agreed, "he did."  
  
Aeka giggled behind her hand and Ryouko cast a sideways glance at her. "What? You think being called a cabbage is funny?"  
  
"No," Aeka gasped. She was laughing now, one finger raised to point at Ryouko, "But the look on your face..." She dissolved into helpless laughter and Ryouko drove on, staring firmly ahead and trying not to blush.  
  
* * *  
  
Katsuhito stepped through Striking through Fog, but Tenchi was too off balance to deflect. The blade of the master key hissed through the air, sizzling when it contacted his arm, and Tenchi leapt backward with a surprised yelp of pain.   
  
"Shit! Grandpa!" His arm was bleeding now, a long, ugly, black-red gash partially cauterized across the outside of his forearm.  
  
"Defend yourself, Tenchi," Katsuhito advised. "You can summon three wings; use them. Had you had a shield, that would not have happened."  
  
"This is going too far," Tenchi muttered, circling defensively.  
  
"Do you wish to end it, then?" Katsuhito asked, not lowering his sword.  
  
*Will he stop if I say yes?* Tenchi wondered. The pain of the power burning through him was almost imperceptible now. He had had the sword in his hand for nearly half an hour; much longer than he had ever used it before. Now the only really pressing concerns were fatigue and the gash on his arm. *Do I want to say yes? I've nearly had him a few times. A little longer and I can wear him down.*  
  
"No," Tenchi answered finally, "keep going."  
  
"Good," Katsuhito said approvingly, advancing again. He lashed out with The Maiden Dances, moving fluidly from it into Edge of the Shadow, to Rain Falling on the Cliff, and then pirouetting into Summer Blossom Spreads Its Petals. Tenchi dodged and danced, blade shimmering and humming as he parried, deflected, and out-right absorbed his grandfather's attacks. He made his own offensive movements with Orange Dawn and Harvesting Berry Trees, but as he stepped out of the final movement he found his grandfather a meter further than he had expected and to the right.  
  
"How-" Tenchi gasped, sure that the old man could not have moved that quickly, but did not have an opportunity to finish the question. Katsuhito's blade flickered forward, striking for his shoulder. Tenchi flinched reflexively back from the hissing sword, trying to will it away from his flesh. The sword in his hand dimmed, then steadied, and the master key ricocheted off a glowing field hovering inches away from his body. It faded quickly when Katsuhito retreated a step, sword weaving around cautiously.  
  
"That's two," Katsuhito observed.  
  
"No. Shit." Tenchi gasped, pain flaring through his skull. The power was nearly overwhelming, and he could not seem to put it away. He thought he might be able to cut it off entirely, but if he did he would be left defenseless and his grandfather was attacking again.  
  
*I can't take this,* Tenchi thought, his muscles screaming in protest as he moved to block Katsuhito's attack. *It's too much...*  
  
The second wing flared again when Tenchi's sword hand slipped, letting the master key come dangerously near his hip. It rebounded from the glowing field, but the surge of power burst through Tenchi's body with all the pain that a successful attack would have brought.  
  
"Grandpa-" Tenchi gasped, "I-"  
  
Katsuhito circled warily, eyeing his grandson. The blade of the master key dimmed and flickered out. "Tenchi? Are you-"  
  
Tenchi lashed out, blade curving upward toward Katsuhito's midsection. The old man pulled back, holding up the quenched sword defensively. The Lighthawk blade skittered and hissed across the resultant shield, warping and distorting its shape as power battled power. Tenchi pulled back from the attack, sword flaring and stuttering before glowing strong again.  
  
"Good," Katsuhito observed. "Lure the enemy into a position of weakness, then strike at the gap."  
  
"Shut up," Tenchi gasped, flicking his blade through Greet the Dawn. "Fight, old man."  
  
Katsuhito dodged the attack and struck out with Orange Dawn in return. Tenchi instinctively lowered his free arm, the master key striking the field that sprang up to envelope it, and thrust with his own blade. Katsuhito sprang sideways, the glowing katana passing inches away from his cheek, and let himself fall into a roll. He hopped to his feet on Tenchi's right, sword tracing a complex line in that weird alien style he had employed before.   
  
Tenchi watched the approaching blade, seeing this time how it would twist. He brought his own sword around to block, then saw at the last moment that his grandfather's muscles were pulling wrong for the attack; he was going to take it in another direction. Tenchi whipped the blade of his sword down, somehow putting it in position an instant before the master key arrived, and spun his arm to push the attack away.  
  
"That won't work twice," Tenchi growled.  
  
"Indeed it won't," Katsuhito agreed, blade spinning as he assumed a new stance.  
  
* * *  
  
"Ryouko?" Aeka asked. The car had been quiet but for the radio since the princess stopped laughing. Ryouko would have spoken, but could not seem to think of anything to talk about except the way Aeka had acted with her professor.  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Ryouko, was I- was I really flirting with Steven?"  
  
"Yes," Ryouko agreed neutrally. She could not decide why she was angry with Aeka for her actions. Because she knew that her professor was a womanizer and absolutely not Aeka's type? Because he had spoiled their lunch together and Aeka did not seem upset? Ryouko refused to countenance the possibility that she was mad that Professor Laurence had so easily given up on her and then focused entirely on Aeka. Not that she Wanted his attention, but being passed up for the princess was something of a new experience for Ryouko.   
  
*Okay, maybe I'm just a little bit jealous. Maybe thinking I'm pregnant Does leave me feeling a little unattractive. But I'm not jealous, I just don't think Aeka should have been flirting with that jerk out in public like that. Tenchi would have kittens if he knew Aeka acted like that.*  
  
"I did not realize," Aeka sighed. She took his card from her pocket and turned it over, looking at his home number scrawled hastily across the back. "Ryouko, do you-"  
  
"No, I Don't think you should call him."  
  
Aeka flashed a glare at Ryouko, then looked back down at the card. "I was going to ask if- Oh, never mind."  
  
Ryouko sighed, "Alright, Aeka. What?"  
  
"No, nothing," Aeka said testily. "You are obviously not in the mood to be civil."  
  
"I'm sorry," Ryouko groaned. "Come on Aeka, what is it?"  
  
"I just..." The princess sighed and put the card back in her pocket. "Do you think I should...look for someone?"  
  
"What? You mean like a boyfriend?"  
  
Aeka nodded, looking out the car window. "I- I need someone, Ryouko. For so long I had Tenchi. Well, not really Had Tenchi, but he filled the role for me. I could look forward to being with him one day and not worry about finding someone. But now- now that's not true anymore, and I don't even know where to begin starting over. I thought I could just go back to Jurai and everything would work out. I would be the crown princess again and everything would be laid out for me... But it didn't happen that way."  
  
"Oh?" Ryouko asked. "It looked like they had everything pretty well plotted out for you back there."  
  
Aeka shook her head. "No, they plan meals and interviews, but personal details are left to the family. Father was too busy to think most of the time I was there and my mothers... They were very understanding. They sent me on one marriage interview, but I- I agreed to it first."  
  
"So how'd it go? I guess you didn't hit it off?"  
  
Aeka rolled her eyes. "No, we did not 'hit it off.' Men who attend marriage interviews are either hopelessly inept or from very traditional families."  
  
"Inept?" Ryouko asked with a grin. "You mean ugly?"  
  
"No," Aeka laughed, "there are certainly those, but most often they are simply too sheltered to have any idea how to court a woman. So they attend interviews to find a wife whom they will not have to seduce."  
  
"Ah. So which category do you fall into, princess?"  
  
"Really, Ryouko. I am only talking to you about this because you said you would be civil."  
  
"Sorry," Ryouko sighed. "Old habits. So which was this guy? Traditional, ugly, or just a recluse?"  
  
"A little of the former and the latter. He was quite handsome, really."  
  
"So why no sparks?"  
  
Aeka shrugged uncomfortably. "I don't know. He just wasn't... My type, I suppose."  
  
"And Steven is?" Ryouko asked, accenting the 'Steven' to better express exactly what sort of opinion she held for her former teacher.  
  
"No, I suppose not. He was interesting, but I do not think I would really wish to spend any amount of time with him. He thinks very highly of himself, doesn't he?"  
  
"Mmm," Ryouko agreed.  
  
"So what do I do?"  
  
"About what?"  
  
"Men," Aeka sighed. "I don't even know where to begin."  
  
"You're asking Me?" Ryouko asked, surprised.  
  
"You are my only friend with anything like a normal relationship, Ryouko. Who else would I talk to?"  
  
"You should ask Ai," Ryouko suggested. "She's had boyfriends."  
  
"But I do not Know Ai. For better or worse, we are friends, Ryouko. Are we not?"  
  
"We are," Ryouko agreed firmly.  
  
"So what shall I do? You've lived in the city for some time, are there...bars or something?"  
  
Ryouko nodded. "There are, but you don't want to go to those places."  
  
"Then what?"  
  
"Have you..." Ryouko paused, considering how to approach the subject. Appearance had always been a sensitive topic with Aeka. "Have you thought about maybe changing the way you look?"  
  
"You mean body alteration?" Aeka asked, frowning. "I do not think I am That unattractive, Ryouko. Just because my chest does not look like a pair of beach balls-"  
  
"No, not that," Ryouko interrupted before the princess could go any further. "I meant get your hair done, buy some new clothes, maybe try some different makeup. Even get your ears pierced."  
  
"Do you really think all that is necessary?" Aeka asked, still frowning.  
  
"Not Necessary, no," Ryouko said carefully. "But you said you want to start over. Maybe if you change your looks a little you'll feel differently about yourself. Then it'll be easier to do new things."  
  
"I don't know. What sort of clothes?"  
  
Ryouko shrugged. "I don't know. Something a little more trendy than your usual? I love kimonos, but you would kind of stick out if you wore one to a singles bar. Maybe something like what you've got on now."  
  
"This?" Aeka asked, plucking at her borrowed blouse. "Don't you think that it is a little..."  
  
"Hmm? Remember who you borrowed it from."  
  
"Yes, well. Perhaps you're right, Ryouko. Sasami has had two relationships in the past year, maybe I should take a cue from her." Aeka chuckled. "Modeling myself on my little sister... What would mother say?"  
  
"How about we go shopping tomorrow?" Ryouko suggested. "We'll pick you out a few new outfits, have lunch, go get your hair done... It'll be fun."  
  
Aeka thinned her lips but nodded. "Yes. I think I'd like that."  
  
* * *  
  
"Focus, Tenchi. You must maintain your focus. It is imperative that you do not let the power-"  
  
"Shut up!" Tenchi growled angrily. *How am I supposed to focus if he keeps babbling at me?* Tenchi pushed away from his grandfather, swords disengaging from the lock they had held for the past minute.  
  
Katsuhito nodded and flicked his sword offensively. Tenchi sidestepped, batting the attack away with his shielded arm. He had found that his grandfather could not penetrate his shields unless he was distracted, so was focusing primarily on trying to overcome Katsuhito's defenses. Not an easy task.  
  
Tenchi moved through one attack after another, each easily deflected or dodged by his grandfather. The pain of holding the wings in place and the effort required to keep his concentration was too much, he could not move as gracefully as the Jurain style required while doing it. But if he released even one of the wings, he would leave himself open to attack. More and more of Katsuhito's probes were penetrating his defensive maneuvers to skitter across the glowing aura of his shield and Tenchi knew that if he dropped it he would lose much more quickly than he could regain enough composition to improve his defense.  
  
"Focus," Katsuhito repeated again. It seemed like that was all the old man said anymore. "You must control the power. You cannot afford the luxury of letting it control you, Tenchi. Fight it or you will not be able to fight me."  
  
Tenchi roared, bringing his blade up and slashing downward. He was sick of Katsuhito's advice. Sick of being told to focus, sick of having things he understood quite well explained to him, and sick of trying to pay attention to three things at once.  
  
Katsuhito raised the master key to absorb Tenchi's wild swing, catching the descending energy blade with his own. Tenchi growled and pushed harder, gasping the end of the bar of light that was the Lighthawk sword with both hands. Katsuhito shifted his feet slightly for leverage, pushing up against Tenchi's weapon.  
  
"Raw force will not overcome, Tenchi," Katsuhito warned. "Without skill force is useless."  
  
"Enough power can substitute for skill," Tenchi muttered. Who had told him that? Someone important...  
  
"Perhaps," Katsuhito agreed reticently, "in some cases. But you don't have enough in this case."  
  
"The hell I don't," Tenchi replied angrily. He pushed harder, forcing the master key closer to his grandfather's face by one centimeter at a time. Katsuhito grunted and pushed back, levering the Lighthawk sword away.  
  
Tenchi felt the power surging inside him, begging to be used. Demanding to be used. It was rampaging through his veins and his mind, crying desperately for him to but tap it. Let himself drink from the font, it promised, and he would win easily. He would burn his opponents away before his gaze. *I can't,* Tenchi thought angrily. *I can't control any more.*  
  
*Why don't you ask Ryouko for help?*  
  
Tenchi blinked, his control of the sword slipping enough that Katsuhito pushed it away by another few centimeters before he regained his focus. *She's too far away,* Tenchi reasoned. *I can't contact her all the way in town.*  
  
*Or are you just afraid?*   
  
*I'm not afraid. What is there to be afraid of?*  
  
*That if something ever happens to her, you won't be able to do anything. If Ryouko were too hurt to help you summon the wings, then what? You'd be left just like this. Unable to even defeat an old man. What kind of husband would you be then? What kind of protector?*  
  
Tenchi roared and pushed against Katsuhito's blade. It went down by another half dozen centimeters, hovering only a hand's span away from his face. The Lighthawk sword flared brighter, its furious blue deepening further toward white.  
  
"Three," Katsuhito gasped, beads of sweat standing out on his forehead and muscles quivering with the effort of keeping his grandson at bay.  
  
Tenchi screamed incoherently, a sound of pure rage and pain. He eyes flicked from side to side rapidly, pupils burning with fiery green light. The symbol on his forehead was gleaming too brightly for Katsuhito to look upon directly, and his body quivered nearly as much as the old man.  
  
"I'm not beaten yet," Katsuhito growled. He closed his eyes and muttered softly, still exerting all the strength he had left to keep the blazing brand of Tenchi's weapon away from his face.  
  
Katsuhito's eyes snapped open and his hands glowed green around the shaft of the master key. Its blade flared and spit crackling tongues of energy to coruscate to the paved ground. Katsuhito growled again and pushed the Lighthawk sword away with a grunt. He leapt backward, out of sword reach, and held his blade at the ready while gasping for air.   
  
Tenchi stood plainly, adopting no stance. His shoulders heaved though he was breathing normally and the fiery green pinpoints in his eyes expanded and contracted in rapid cycles.   
  
"Tenchi! Keep hold of yourself, Tenchi. Don't let your mind be consumed by it."  
  
Tenchi snarled and stepped forward, raising his sword. He lashed out, a blind strike fueled only by power and utterly lacking in form or grace. Katsuhito dodged out of the way, rolling to his feet a few meters away. Tenchi turned and stepped forward again.  
  
"Remember yourself, Tenchi! Remember Ryouko, your wife! Remember your child!"  
  
Tenchi's lip curled back in a feral gesture, exposing his canines as a low hiss emerged from his throat. He made no other response to Katsuhito's advice, but took another step to close the distance between them.  
  
"Tenchi!" Katsuhito called sternly. "Stop this, Tenchi. You are using more power than you can control. Release it until you have yourself in focus again."  
  
"How many times," Tenchi snarled, "do I have to tell you to Shut Up?" The Lighthawk sword whipped up toward Katsuhito's chest, leaving a flaming swath of energy in its path. Katsuhito brought the master key around to deflect, a horrible screech ripping through the air as one blade slid across the other.  
  
Tenchi attacked again and again, utterly without plan or strategy. He simply brought the sword up and down, or curving in from the side, or rising in deadly arcs from below. Wherever an attack left the blade, he whipped it back toward Katsuhito. The older man fought hard to keep it away, dancing and leaping to avoid the blazing sword as often as possible. When it was impossible to avoid he caught it with his own blade, the master key's bar of energy distorting and sputtering around the Lighthawk sword.  
  
"You must remember your training," Katsuhito advised. "You can not win this way."  
  
"Why not?" Tenchi asked in a low growl. "If it were not for interference, I would have won this way the last time."  
  
Katsuhito frowned and fought on in silence.  
  
Tenchi launched another volley of attacks, screaming as they came to a furious crescendo with a downward strike at Katsuhito's head. "Death to the Jurai!"  
  
"Tenchi!" Katsuhito gasped. "You-"  
  
Tenchi hissed and came on, ignoring his grandfather's continued protests. He saw the green flames of his eyes reflected in Katsuhito's, but the sight only drove him to fight harder. It looked so familiar. Just like the last time. Like before the old man sealed him away in the cave.  
  
"Never again!" Tenchi screamed wildly, blade flashing toward Katsuhito's shoulder. The priest brought up the master key to block the attack, but Tenchi's swing slammed into it with all the inevitable force of an avalanche. The master key sputtered and died in Katsuhito's hands. The old man flung himself down and to the side, out of the path of the oncoming sword, and stared at it in shock.  
  
"Four," he gasped, watching tendrils of energy pulse around the solid white core of Tenchi's weapon. "Four wings..."  
  
Tenchi screamed again, this time without words. He brought the sword down on the paving stones where Katsuhito lay a moment before. The rock shattered under the blow, sending stone fragments flying into Tenchi's legs and Katsuhito's arm where he lay a few meters to the side. He had rolled away just in time to avoid the attack and now scrambled to his feet.  
  
Tenchi's head swiveled toward him, his gaze an inferno of green and his whole being lit by a pale emerald radiance. His shoulders were heaving and all the muscles of his face and hands twitched spasmodically, pulling themselves this way and that. He held himself upright only by sheer force of will, the pain having burnt logical thought away under its onslaught what seemed an eternity ago.  
  
"Stop Tenchi!" Katsuhito shouted, raising his empty hands. The master key lay useless on the shattered tiles of the courtyard, lifeless as any other hunk of wood. A blue-green phosphorescence built up around Katsuhito's raised hands, edged in tiny flickers of silver.  
  
Tenchi opened his mouth, but only a strangled, choking noise emerged. His face twisted into a hideous mask that flickered between pain and hatred as he fought with his own arms to raise the sword.  
  
Katsuhito rushed his grandson, slipping around space to dodge the inevitable attack. His hands flashed toward Tenchi's body, their glittering coronas leaving sparkling paths in the air through which they passed, but rebounded ineffectively off the younger man's shield. Tenchi whipped the sword around again and Katsuhito stepped across space once more. He flickered from in front of Tenchi off to one side, the action drawing a grimace to his features.  
  
Tenchi attacked again and Katsuhito dodged once more, ducking in low to drive a punch for Tenchi's stomach. The shield absorbed the impact but distorted slightly under Katsuhito's continued force. The priest fell backward and away, rolling across the paving stones before rising once more to his feet.  
  
"Tsunami give me strength," he whispered. "I'm an old fool who did not realize the course of his actions. Let me stop him before he injures himself..."  
  
Tenchi howled in agony and rushed forward, his feet half stumbling over themselves and each other. The blade of the Lighthawk sword, a solid beam of white cutting a hole in the air, traced a messy arc toward Katsuhito. The priest flickered out of its way, reappearing beside Tenchi and delivering a series of punches to his grandson's side. One after another they impacted the shield and were repulsed, but with each attack it distorted further, sending ripples across the near-invisible surface of the barrier enveloping the man.  
  
Katsuhito drew back his hand and shouted before driving it forward. Silver flames flared against blue-white, but the priest's stiffened fingers passed through the barrier and slammed into Tenchi's kidney. The younger man howled and danced aside, shield flickering and flaring around the gaping hole near his waist.  
  
Tenchi turned his head in a jittering motion to look down at it, then brought his empty, burning gaze back to the priest. His lips twitched like live creatures and a gurgling moan rose from his chest. His mouth gaped wide and something like a dry rattle welled forth. The world dimmed before Katsuhito's eyes and the aura of energy sheathing his hands winked out. He gaped down at them for only a split second before refocusing on his opponent. Tenchi's whole body was wracked with shuddering jerks, his arms twitching uncontrollably and weaving the sword around in strange patterns.  
  
Solid light blazed from the gaping wound in the shield and it sealed over before Katsuhito's eyes. Glimmering fields formed around Tenchi's torso, arms, and legs, solidifying into dead-white plates of energetic nothingness.   
  
"Five," Katsuhito whispered despite himself. Tenchi pulled one hand away from the sword and its twin blazed to life in his grasp. Katsuhito gaped, unable to control himself. Power rolled off of Tenchi in waves, driving rippling patterns in the stone dust covering the unbroken tiles of the yard. The twin supports of the porch, a good dozen meters away, exploded. Shards of burning wood whistled through the air and those that made it as far as the two men vaporized as they approached Tenchi, leaving only thin trails of smoke to mark their passage. The master key shuddered across the yard, vibrating like a struck tuning fork.  
  
"Six... By the tree..."  
  
Tenchi took one shuddering step toward his grandfather, his footstep resounding through the clearing like a thunderclap, and something silver-white streaked out of the forest toward him.  
  
  
Katsuhito watched Vianna's approach as though in slow motion. Her face was set and determined, eyes blazing. The name of the House Jurai was on her lips and fields of almost-there silver flame curled around her fists. She streaked across the paving stones in much the way Katsuhito had moved before, slipping around space and stepping between the span of seconds. She moved faster than anything Katsuhito had seen since training under his mother Misaki. Tenchi moved faster.  
  
Vianna whipped the wooden blade from her back, silver fire rushing along its length as she brought it around in a skillful arc. For the tiniest fraction of an instant Katsuhito thought it would connect, then Tenchi's weapon was there. He did not move, that the priest could see, he simply was no longer in the position he had occupied a moment ago. The wooden blade shattered under the impact of one of Tenchi's swords and the other followed it, curving toward Vianna's neck. Somehow she slipped the blow, rolling across the yard and springing back to her feet meters away.  
  
Tenchi swung his head between her and Katsuhito, swords moving in shuddering arcs to point in both directions.  
  
Katsuhito dropped to his knees, bowing his head and spreading his arms wide. He called in as clear a voice as he could manage, "I submit!"  
  
The sword pointed at the priest swung around to face Vianna and Tenchi took a step toward her. In that step he traversed the space between them, going from here to there without, that Katsuhito could discern, moving through or even around the space between. His blades flashed down, but again Vianna somehow managed not to be there when they struck. She half dashed, half rolled across the yard and snatched the inactive master key up from the stones. Katsuhito knew she should not have been able to touch it, but it no more stopped her than it worked when she attempted to ignite it.  
  
Tenchi glared across the distance at her as she fumbled with the useless weapon. His hands came together, the swords evaporating. In there place came a bar of solid light, burning from where he stood though the empty air of the yard and through Vianna's chest. It flickered and faded as she fell, limp and lifeless, to the stones.   
  
Tenchi's face calmed when she hit the ground, the twitching gone. The furious inferno in his eyes shrank to pinpoints and Katsuhito saw his lips moving. The priest's ears rang with the buzz of his grandson's power, but he was nearly positive that Tenchi whispered Ryouko's name.   
  
Tenchi moved across the space between himself and the fallen guard, again without traversing any of the area between them, and knelt beside her. He gently rolled her onto her back, looking down at the gaping hole where her right breast once was. Tenchi brought up one hand, palm up and open, and a tiny sextet of rotating lights formed above it. Katsuhito watched as they spun faster, then streaked toward the guard's body. The corpse shook when they impacted her forehead, thrashing limply against the ground. Solid light flared from the hole in her chest, a beam piercing the clouds above and too bright to even glance in the direction of.   
  
When his vision cleared, Katsuhito saw Tenchi collapsed on the ground beside the guard. Her clothes were ragged and charred, but her breast was whole again and, as he watched, it rose and fell with her breathing.  
  
* * *  
  
Tires squealed when Ryouko stood on the brake, swerving off the road and nearly driving the car into a ditch. Aeka shrieked, bracing against the dashboard as the vehicle bounced and lurched across uneven ground.  
  
"Ryouko!" Aeka shouted when they had come to a halt, but the cyan-haired woman made no response. She was staring hard into the distance, eyes wide with fright. Her fingers were wrapped around the steering wheel in a white-knuckled grip and she appeared to be shaking.  
  
"Ryouko, what-"  
  
"Tenchi," Ryouko gasped, "he's..."  
  
"What?" Aeka asked, shaken and confused. Cars whistled past.  
  
"He's in trouble," Ryouko whispered, half to herself. She turned to look at her companion and said quickly, "I'm sorry Aeka, I have to go to him. I'll be back for you as soon as I can."  
  
"Ryouko, what are-"  
  
Ryouko vanished from the driver's seat, car still running, and Aeka finished quietly, "-you talking about?"  
  
* * *  
  
Ryouko shouted Tenchi's name and dashed across the paved yard of the shrine, stumbling over pieces of shattered stone and yet smoldering wood. Tenchi was not moving and, in her focus on her husband, Ryouko barely noticed Vianna, Katsuhito, or Washuu.  
  
"Tenchi," Ryouko cried again, falling to her knees beside him. She shook him, but he did not respond. She was vastly relieved to find that he was breathing, but his breaths were long and ragged and muscles all over his body twitched randomly while she watched.   
  
Pressing a hand to his forehead, Ryouko leaned down and listened to Tenchi's chest. His heartbeat was very fast, but strong and even for all its speed. His face was flushed and coated with sweat and the muscles of his forehead were twitching around under her fingers.  
  
"Talk to me Tenchi," Ryouko pleaded. "Wake up. Come on Tenchi, wake up." But he did not; he just laid there on his back with his eyelids flickering as the orbs beneath jittered around. Ryouko shut her own eyes and concentrated, trying to focus the way her mother had taught her. After what seemed an eternity and when she was suspecting she simply could not do it so far from the lab, the interface of Washuu's computer blossomed in her mind like an unfolding lily. Ryouko opened her eyes to find the terminal floating above Tenchi's chest, waiting for command.  
  
"Hang on Tenchi," Ryouko whispered, tapping with the speed of desperation at the keys. Charts and graphs sprang up around her arms and Ryouko's eyes flickered between them, gleaning information about her fallen husband from their shifting patterns. She spread a field across Tenchi's body to deaden his nervous system, ending the random twitching. He was alive and well enough, so far as she could tell, just unconscious. As her concern for Tenchi ramped down from obsessive to merely worried Ryouko took in the shrine clearing. Paving stones were shattered or entirely gone in a few places, rubble from their destruction scattered across the unbroken portions of the surface. The porch roof of the building had collapsed, the supports little more than charred stumps jutting up like fangs from the foundation. A few meters away Vianna lay, her chest half exposed and clothing singed, apparently as unconscious as Tenchi. And, leaning against the wall of the shrine building, sat Katsuhito. His shirt was undone and hung loose around his shoulders, sweat glistening from his neck and chest. Washuu knelt beside him, gently dabbing his forehead with a damp cloth. His eyes were closed and she was facing away, so Ryouko was not sure if they even knew she was there. How they could not, given her screams before, she did not know. Most of all though, power rang through the air around her. It was like the feeling of a coming storm, potential for great destruction permeating the world and flooding her senses. The dust and rock littering the ground was distributed in perfect waveforms, disturbed only by her own footprints. She could see two loci of focus for the waves, rings of rock and dirt spreading out from them like waves atop the surface of a pond to mingle and cancel where they interfaced. One was a few meters away, the other was directly beneath Tenchi's supine form.  
  
Confident that her husband would live and, in time, wake up naturally, Ryouko rose and stalked toward her mother and grandfather.  
  
"What the hell happened?" Ryouko demanded. Washuu glanced up at her daughter as she approached and Katsuhito cracked an eyelid for a moment, but neither replied.  
  
Ryouko growled and asked again, "What happened here? Who was Tenchi fighting?"  
  
Again there was no response. A little orb of information popped into being before Washuu and she rotated it, studying one facet after another of Katsuhito's well being.  
  
"God damn it," Ryouko fumed, reaching down and catching her mother by the collar. She pulled Washuu away from her charge and held her an inch above the ground. "I asked what the hell happened to my husband."  
  
"Calm down Ryouko," Washuu sighed, not trying to disengage herself from her daughter's grasp. "Tenchi is fine, now please put me down so I can finish attending to Kat?"  
  
"Tell me what happened first," Ryouko demanded. She did not understand what was going on or why her mother would be so closed-mouthed suddenly. And why would she have left Tenchi convulsing like that? He was Obviously not 'fine.'  
  
"Tenchi and his grandfather were sparring," Washuu explained. "Things got a little out of hand."  
  
"A Little?" Ryouko asked in disbelief, looking around the yard. "It looks like someone fought a war up here. And my bond with Tenchi got cut off, that's only happened when he lost control of the wings. What the hell was he doing using them?"  
  
"Put your mother down, Ryouko," Katsuhito sighed. "It was my fault and I will explain. Let her finish her ministrations or she will blame herself every time I have an ache in my knee."  
  
Ryouko reluctantly put Washuu down, then stood with her hands on her hips and waited for Katsuhito's promised explanation. The old priest sighed and rubbed his forehead over still-closed eyes. His hand shook slightly.  
  
"Tenchi must learn to control his powers without your help, Ryouko."  
  
"What?" Ryouko frowned down at Katsuhito and asked, "Why? I'm always going to be there for him, why should he have to do that?"  
  
"What happens if you are injured?" Katsuhito asked. "Or too far away for Tenchi to find you with his mind?"  
  
"That won't happen," Ryouko said confidently.  
  
"You don't know that," Katsuhito scolded. "What if there were another of Tokimi's servants? What if it were to injure you before either of you could react, and you were unable to help Tenchi?"  
  
"He could defend me," Ryouko asserted. "He's strong enough."  
  
"Indeed he is," Katsuhito agreed, rubbing his shoulder. "But the last of those beings was powerful. If another were sent, it would likely be even stronger. Tenchi would fight with his life to save yours, you know that. He would not hesitate to use any means at his disposal to defend you. And what would happen were he to summon the power without you there to help him control it? He would lose himself in it and, once he had destroyed his enemy, destroy himself."  
  
Ryouko frowned. What he said was true enough, but she did not have to like it. "You don't understand what it feels like. He hurts so much when he uses the wings without me. It's... I can't explain how bad it is."  
  
Katsuhito shook his head. "I'm sure I don't, but that does not change the facts of the matter. If Tenchi cannot control himself, it will eventually lead to his destruction."  
  
"So you're trying to teach him to?" Ryouko asked. The old bastard had made her Tenchi summon the wings unaided? How could he possibly be so cruel?  
  
"Some paths cannot be learned," Katsuhito sighed, "they must be walked. Tenchi is the only one that can teach Tenchi how to control the power. There is no other in the universe, besides you, perhaps, who has the sort of ability he does. I wished to help him, but I did not fully grasp what I was doing. He lost control. I think that he believed himself to be you, for a time, and struck out at me in fear. Vianna interceded on my behalf, I'm guessing, and Tenchi killed her."  
  
Ryouko glanced toward the prone woman, watching her breathing. "She looks alright to me."  
  
"He killed her," Katsuhito asserted. "He vaporized a large portion of her chest. After it was done he somehow found himself again. He went to her and repaired the damage, then restored her life. I have seen miracles worked with the power of Jurai, but never anything like that. Her heart and much of her lungs were gone entirely, but he put them back and restored the soul to her body."  
  
"Like Tsunami did for him," Ryouko whispered, staring at her husband's limp body. "I- I didn't know he had that much power. I wouldn't have guessed we could even do that together."  
  
"He was wielding six wings by the time Vianna appeared," Katsuhito said, his tone touched with awe.   
  
"Six? But how? I didn't think he could do more than three."  
  
"He can't," Washuu agreed, speaking up after closing down her terminal. "Looks like you'll live, Kat."  
  
"Then how, Mom?"  
  
Washuu turned away from Katsuhito to look at her daughter. "Tenchi has enough power tied up in his body to command three wings, the same as a moderately powerful Jurain starship, and apparently the same as you. When I felt him summoning those, I came out to see what was going on. Tenchi seemed to have it under control, and was holding his own against Kat, so I let them play. Then it all collapsed too quickly for me to do more than watch. Tenchi siphoned off power from the master key, from Kat, and as far as I can tell from Aeka, the tree Funaho, and a dozen other places scattered across the surface of the globe. He only has the power for three wings, but he's like a living incarnation of a Jurain key. He can tap Jurai energy directly, but so far from the Network and without a tree to link him to it, he had to take it straight from other sources. Combined, there was enough power to double his normal compliment. If he were actually On Jurai I have no idea what he would be capable of. The only limit to what he could draw from the Network would be his own body; he could easily pull in so much power that he burns himself out. Not just his mind as he risked before, either. He could vaporize his body with the power just as well as he did Vianna's."  
  
* * *  
  
"Tenchi? Are you awake?"  
  
Tenchi opened one eye slowly, then the other. Everything hurt.  
  
A cyan-topped blur moved into view but it was too hard to focus for Tenchi to make out more than that. He tried to say her name, but despite his lips moving no sound came out.  
  
Ryouko moved around, a shifting image of colors against a duller-colored background, and Tenchi felt something cool and wet on his lips.  
  
"Drink," she instructed. Tenchi tried his best, but much of the liquid spilled around the corners of his mouth when he could not make his lips and throat work correctly. Ryouko dabbed at his face, clearing away the tangy, sweet liquid she had fed him.  
  
"Wha," Tenchi managed, voice groaning and sliding even across the single syllable.  
  
"It's something Mom made," Ryouko explained. "She said it would help with the restoration process." She sighed and sat down at the edge of the table, or whatever it was, where he lay. Tenchi tried to move his head to look at her, but either something was restraining him or it simply would not work.  
  
"I'm sorry," Ryouko said quietly. "It's my fault you can't move, Tenchi. I- I overreacted when I found you and I did something without really understanding what I was doing. You kind of burned out most of your central nervous system while you were fighting with Katsuhito, but your body was regenerating itself when I got there. I saw you twitching around and I thought there was something wrong, so I used Mom's machines and generated a field to stop what was going on inside you at the time. It turns out that I actually kept you from getting better, so now Mom has a bunch of nanites running around in your body rebuilding the damage. It's a lot slower than whatever you were doing, but Mom doesn't know how to recreate that. Not yet, anyway. She says she'll probably have it figured out in a couple of weeks."  
  
Tenchi felt his eyelids growing heavier and let them slide shut on the blurred Ryouko sitting beside him. As he slipped back into unconsciousness he heard her say, "Sleep now dear, you'll feel better when you wake up."  
  
* * *  



End file.
